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ECLECTIC ENGLISH CLASSICS 



SHAKESPEARE'S 



HENRY V 



EDITED BY 

FREDERICK HOUK LAW, A.M., Ph.D. 

HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, 
THE STUYVESANT HIGH SCHOOL, CITY OF NEW YORK 



AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 

NEW YORK . CINCINNATI CHICAGO 






Copyright, 19 14, by 
American Book Company 



Henry V 
w. p. I 



SEP I 1914 



CI.A380187 



INTRODUCTION 

THE DATE OF HENRY V 

It is probable that Shakespeare wrote Henry V about 
1599 when he was 35 years of age. At that time he had 
written nine plays based on English history, a number of 
comedies — among which we find the boisterous Comedy of 
Errors, and the fanciful Midsummer Night's Dream — the 
almost tragic Merchant of Venice, and the beautiful but 
tragic Romeo and Juliet. He was still to write his great trage- 
dies — Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Othello, Lear, and Macbeth — 
and a number of other plays, among which are such delight- 
ful romances as The Tempest and The Winter s Tale. Henry V 
therefore represents his work when he was midway in his 
dramatic career. 

We assume the date, 1599, for various reasons. It is evi- 
dent that lines 29-34 in the Chorus of Act V were written 
before news had reached England concerning the efforts 
of the Earl of Essex to put down an uprising in Tyrone, 
Ireland. In June, 1599, the citizens of London learned that 
the expedition to Ireland had met with disaster. This alone 
places the date of the play beforejune, 1599. In 1598 Francis 
Meres published a list of plays that had been written by 
Shakespeare up to that time but he makes no mention of 
Henry V. On the other hand. The Stationers^ Register, 
published in 1600, mentions the play. These reasons, as 
well as the general character of the play, make it almost 
certain that Shakespeare wrote Henry V about 1599. 

THE SOURCES OF HENRY V 

In 1577, when Shakespeare was 13 years old, Raphael 
Holinshed published his Chronicles of England, Scotland and 
Ireland. The first edition, in two illustrated volumes, was 
so popular that a second edition was issued in 1587. Many 
great events, among which was the defeat of the Spanish 

3 



4 INTRODUCTION 

Armada, had made the EngUsh more than usually interested 
in their national history. Because of this deep interest in 
which he himself shared, Shakespeare wrote a number of 
plays based on the stories of the English kings. It was 
natural that he should base his historical plays on the popular 
history written by Holinshed. From that storehouse of 
information he drew material for his plays concerning well- 
known English kings, and for such other plays as King Lear, 
Macbeth, and Cymbeline. Shakespeare's historical plays 
based on Holinshed tell much the same stories that we find 
in the work of the quaint old writer, but they tell the stories 
with a force, a spirit, a poetic effect that make them more 
vivid, more powerful, more beautiful in every way. Further- 
more, out of what Holinshed tells as a mere narrative Shake- 
speare makes a play, a story of human life passing through 
struggle to ultimate failure or success. 

Henry V is one of the historical plays based on Holinshed's 
Chronicles. In Holinshed Shakespeare found material for 
the story of the insulting gift of tennis balls; the scene be- 
tween Henry and the Archbishop of Canterbury; the con- 
spiracy against Henry's life; the siege of Harfleur; the 
weakened condition of the English before the battle of Agin- 
court; Henry's heroic and noble bearing; the great victory 
of the English at Agincourt, and the marriage of Henry 
and the Princess Katherine. In Holinshed he found a number 
of minor details, such as the incident of Bardolph's stealing 
a pyx from a church. Shakespeare used all this material in 
such an original way as to make it his own, as an architect 
uses stone and wood prepared by others. Thus in Holinshed 
we read : 

"It is said that as he heard one of the host utter his wish to another thus: 
I would to God there were with us now so manie good soldiers as are at this 
houre within England! the king answered: I would not wish a man more 
here than I have: we are indeed in comparison to the enimies but a few, but 
if God of his clemencie doo favour us, and our just cause (as I trust he will) 
we shall speed well inough. But let no man ascribe victorie to our owne 
strength and might, but onelie to Gods assistance, to whome I have no 
doubt we shall worthilie have cause to give thanks therefore. And if so be 
that for our offenses sakes we shall be delivered into the hands of our enimies, 
the lesse number we be, the lesse damage shall the realme of England sus- 
teine; but if we should fight in trust of multitude of men, and so get the 
victorie (our minds being prone to pride), we should thereupon peradventure 



INTRODUCTION 5 

ascribe the victorie not so much to the gift of God, as to our owne puissance, 
and thereby provoke his high indignation and displeasure against us; and 
if the enimie get the upper hand, then should our realme and countrie suffer 
more damage and stand in further danger. But be you of comfort, and 
show your selves vahant, God and our just quarrell shall defend us, and 
deliver these our proud adversaries with all the multitude of them which 
you see (or at least the most of them), into our hands. ..." 

When we compare this with Henry V, iv, 3, 16-67 we see 
at once how Shakespeare gave Kfe and power to what before 
was simple narrative. 

Another source of Shakespeare's Henry V is an old play 
by an unknown author, The Famous Victories of Henry the 
Fifths printed in 1598 but written and acted at least ten 
years earlier. This also is based on Holinshed's Chronicles. 
In this old play Shakespeare found additional material for 
Scene 2, Act i that tells of the gift of tennis balls, for the 
siege of Harfleur, the battle of Agincourt, some of the comic 
scenes, the negotiations with the French in Act v, and the 
scene between Henry and Katherine. Whatever material 
Shakespeare found in the old play he made his own by addi- 
tions, and by a poetic and spirited treatment, as may be seen 
by comparing the following passage from "The Famous 
Victories" with Henry V, i, 2, 259-297. 

"My lord Prince Dolphin is very pleasant with me; 
But tell him that in steed of balles of leather, 
We wil tosse him balles of brasse and yron, 
Yea, such balles as never were tost in France; 
The proudest tennis court shall rue it, 
I and thou Prince of Burges shall rue it. 
Therefore get thee hence, and tell him thy message quickly, 
Least I be there before thee. Away, priest, be gone." 

HENRY V AS A PLAY 

Shakespeare's best plays have characters who impress us 
as real, whose emotions so appeal to us that we think and 
feel with them. They have an action that proceeds steadily 
from the beginning, through a point of highest interest, to a 
final conclusion. They are based upon a conflict of forces, 
especially upon a conflict in the soul of the hero. They 
follow a certain development, namely, an introduction, a 



6 INTRODUCTION 

rise of action, a climax or turning point, a decline of action 
and a conclusion. In addition to all this, Shakespeare's best 
plays are written with such choice of words and such powe 
of expression that they appeal to us as the work of a man 
of deep, poetic insight. 

In Henry V our interest is in the events that concern 
Henry himself rather than in any conflict such as we see in 
Macbeth or Hamlet. The development of the action is broken 
by long speeches and by comic scenes that are loosely con- 
nected with the main story, whereas, in a play like Othello 
we find every scene closely united to the main action. Our 
interest in Henry V is the story interest rather than the dra- 
matic. The language is sweeping and rhetorical rather than 
finely poetic. The play therefore can not be classed as one 
of Shakespeare's best plays. 

Its points of value are many. There are few plays that 
present as knightly a character as that of King Henry. His 
desire to do right, his dignity, his royalty, his interest in 
his men, his love for his country, his feeling of responsibility, 
his courage in the face of odds, his manhood that expresses 
itself by tenderness toward the aged Sir Thomas Erpingham, 
by grief at the death of York and Suffolk, and humor and 
fun with Williams and Fluellen, — all these characteristics, 
united with a spirit of deep religious trust, make Henry a noble 
character indeed. The whole play is filled with a patriotic 
and martial spirit that inspires the reader with the feelings 
that moved the people of Queen Elizabeth's time. There is 
delightful humor, especially in the courting of Henry and 
Katherine. The language is resonant, strong, rhetorical, 
carrying interest by its force and vigor. 

HOW HENRY V IS RELATED TO THE FACTS OF HISTORY 

In general, Shakespeare's Henry V is remarkably true 
to history. The most striking events in the play are true: 
the claim to the French crown, the enthusiastic determina- 
tion upon war, the gathering of the army at Southampton, 
the conspiracy against the king's life, the successful siege 
of Harfleur, the weakened condition of the English before 
Agincourt, the great victory, the enormous loss of the French, 
and the marriage of Henry and Katherine. Many of the 



:st ■ 
er y 



INTRODUCTION 7 

proper names used are real names. Many of the minor 
details are based on fact. 

But Shakespeare had no desire to keep strictly to the 
facts of history. He wrote as a dramatist, not as a historian. 
It has been denied that the church played a strong part in 
bringing about the war. Grave doubts have been cast upon 
the stories concerning Henry's wildness in his youth. The 
incident of the tennis balls may be wholly fictitious. The 
real Falstaff and the real Bardolf were men of honor and 
dignity. While the differences between the English and the 
French forces at Agincourt were great they were not so 
great as the play seems to indicate, nor was the Dauphin 
present at the battle. The gap of five years between Act iv 
and Act v has been lightly bridged over. Henry's marriage 
to Katherine was not the direct result of Agincourt nor was 
it so romantic a marriage as Shakespeare indicates. 

THE REAL HENRY V 

Henry, the son of Henry of Lancaster, was born in the 
Castle of Monmouth, Wales, August 9, 1387. In 1399 his 
father, having forced Richard II to abdicate, became King 
of England. The young prince was at once placed in high 
position in Wales. When less than 16 he took brave part 
in the battle of Shrewsbury. He had full command of all 
operations against the rebellious Welsh. For three years 
before his father's death he played a strong part in the govern- 
ment of England. His bravery in battle, his conduct of 
military operations, and the high respect in which his opinions 
were held, indicate nothing of the wayward prince mentioned 
in Shakespeare's Henry IV and Henry V. 

At the age of 26 Henry became king. Having brought 
about unity between the discordant factions in England 
he revived an old claim to the French crown, believing that 
he was justified in the claim. War became inevitable. 

With great enthusiasm an army of 6,000 men-at-arms and 
24,000 archers, equipped with cannon and every known 
military device, prepared to invade France. At this moment 
Henry's prompt and stern justice in condemning conspirators 
against his life increased his personal power. Sixteen hundred 
vessels carried the troops to France where they began the 



8 INTRODUCTION 

siege of Harfleur. When Henry took the town at the 
of 30 days he walked barefooted and bareheaded to 
Church of St. Martin and gave thanks for the victory. 

After many days of marching, about 15,000 EngHsh, 
weakened by sickness, faced about 60,000 French near Agin- 
court. Long rains had made the clay so sticky that it was 
unfit for the French cavalry. The field of battle was so 
narrow that the very numbers of the French prevented them 
from fighting well. The English archers, using spearlike 
stakes thrust into the ground, kept off the French knights. 
Their long bows shot arrows with bullet speed. The French 
were completely routed, losing over 10,000 men while the 
English lost only about 1600. 

Henry now returned to England where he busied himself 
for two years with preparations for renewed war with France. 
He once more invaded France and after months of war gained 
recognition as Regent. In 1420, five years after Agincourt, 
he married Katherine of France. Renewed war called him 
to the field. His health had never been robust and he died 
in 1422, worn out by his campaigns. 

As a military leader Henry was a stern disciplinarian. 
He forbade his soldiers to inflict unnecessary damage where 
they marched. He found it expedient to drive the inhabi- 
tants of Harfleur from the town, and to order the killing of 
the prisoners at Agincourt. As a king he unified his land, 
increased its commerce, and developed its strength. As a 
man he was artistic and musical; he led a clean and honorable 
life; he had high ideals and was deeply and sincerely religious. 

He is the young man's type of hero, — the high-minded 
youthful warrior. He was 15 when he first led in battle; 
he was 28 when he won at Agincourt; he was 35 when he died. 




BIBLIOGRAPHY 

E. A. Abbott: A Shakespearean Grammar. 

J. Bartlett: A Concordance to Shakespeare. 

E. K. Chambers: Shakespeare (Encyclopaedia Britannica). 

A. J. Church: Henry F. 

Edward Dowden : Shakespeare: His Mind and Art. 

Edward Dowden: Shakespeare (Literature Primers). 

C. L. Kingsford: Henry V (Encyclopaedia Britannica). 

C. L. Kingsford : Henry F, the Typical Medieval Hero. 

A. Schmidt : A Shakespearean Lexicon. 



THE LIFE OF HENRY THE FIFTH 



PERSONS OF THE PLAY 



King Henry the Fifth. 

Duke of Gloucester, 1 brothers to 

Duke of Bedford, j the King. 

Duke of Exeter, uncle to the King. 

Duke of York, cousin to the King. 

Earls of Salisbury, Westmore- 
land, and Warwick. 

Archbishop of Canterbury. 

Bishop of Ely. 

Earl of Cambridge. 

Lord Scroop. 

Sir Thomas Grey. 

Sir Thomas Erpingham, Gower, 
Fluellen, Macmorris, Jamy, 
officers in King Henry's army. 

Bates, Court, Williams, soldiers 
in the same. 

Pistol, Nym, Bardolph. 

Boy. 

A Herald. 

Charles the Sixth, King of France. 

Lewis, the Dauphin. 



Dukes of Burgundy, Orleans, 
and Bourbon. 

The Constable of France. 

Rambures and Grandpre, French 
Lords. 

Governor of Harfleur. 

MoNTjOY, a French Herald, 

Ambassadors to the King of Eng- 
land. 

Isabel, Queen of France. 
Katherine, daughter to Charles and 

Isabel. 
Alice, a lady attending on her. 
Hostess of a tavern in Eastcheap, 

formerly Mistress Quickly, and 

now married to Pistol. 

Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, 
Citizens, Messengers, and At- 
tendants. 

Chorus. 

Scene: England; afterwards France. 



PROLOGUE 



Enter Chorus. 

Chorus. O for a Muse" of fire, that would ascend 
The brightest heaven of invention, 
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, 
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene! 
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself. 
Assume the port of Mars;" and at his heels, 
Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire 

A superior n indicates a note at the end of the volume. 

II 



12 SHAKESPEARE [prologue. 

Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all, 

The flat unraised spirit that hath dar'd 

On this unworthy scaffold^ to bring forth 

So great an object: can this cockpit hold 

The vasty fields of France.? or may we cram 5 

Within this wooden O^ the very casques^ 

That did affright the air at Agincourt.?" 

O, pardon! since a crooked figure may 

Attest in little place a million; 

And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,^ 10 

On your imaginary forces work. 

Suppose within the girdle of these walls 

Are now confin'd two mighty monarchies. 

Whose high-upreared and abutting fronts 

The perilous, narrow ocean^ parts asunder. 15 

Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts; 

Into a thousand parts divide one man. 

And make imaginary puissance:^ 

Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them 

Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth; 20 

For 't is your thoughts that now must deck our kings, 

Carry them here and there, jumping o'er times. 

Turning the accomplishment of many years 

Into an hour-glass: for the which supply. 

Admit me Chorus^ to this history; 25 

Who prologue-like^ your humble patience pray, 

Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play. [Exit. 

1 The small stage of an ordinary theater. 

2 Theater. The Globe Theater was round. 

^ Helmets. Figurative for "The fierce men in armor." 

^ Reckoning. 

^ Force. 

® An actor who explains the action of a play. 

' By way of introduction. 



SCENE I.] . HENRY THE FIFTH 1 3 

. ACT I 

Scene I. London. An Ante-chamher in the King s Palace, 

Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of 

Ely. 

Canterbury. My lord, I'll tell you; that self bill is urg'd, 
Which in the eleventh year of the last king's reign 
Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd, 
But that the scambling ^ and unquiet time 
Did push it out of farther question. 5 

Ely. But how, my lord, shall we resist it now? 

Canterbury. It must be thought on. If it pass against us. 
We lose the better half of our possession; 
For all the temporal lands ^ which men devout 
By testament^ have given to the church 10 

Would they strip from us; being valued thus: 
As much as would maintain, to the king's honor, 
Full fifteen earls and fifteen hundred knights. 
Six thousand and two hundred good esquires; 
And, to relief of lazars"^ and weak age, 15 

Of indigent faint souls past corporal toil, 
A hundred almshouses right well supplied; 
And to the coffers ^ of the king beside, 
A thousand pounds by the year: thus runs the bill. 

Ely. This would drink deep. 20 

Canterbury. 'T would drink the cup and all. 

Ely. But what prevention? 

Canterbury. The king is full of grace and fair regard. 

^ Turbulent or disorderly. 

2 Lands once private property of English subjects. 

^ Last will and testament. 

^ Lepers or sick people in general. 

^ A coffer is a money box. Hence, treasury. 



14 SHAKESPEARE . [act i. 

Ely. And a true lover of the holy church. 

Canterbury. The courses of his youth" promis'd it not. 
The breath no sooner left his father's body, 
But that his wildness, mortified^ in him, 
SeemM to die too; yea, at that very moment 5 

Consideration, like an angel, came 
And whipp'd the offending Adam^ out of him, 
Leaving his body as a paradise 
To envelope and contain celestial spirits. 
Never was such a sudden scholar made; 10 

Never came reformation in a flood 
With such a heady currance,^ scouring faults; 
Nor never hydra-headed'^ wilfulness 
So soon did lose his seat and all at once 
As in this king. ^ 15 

Ely. We are blessed in the change. 

Canterbury. Hear him but reason in divinity. 
And, all-admiring, with an inward wish 
You would desire the king were made a prelate:^ 
Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs, 20 

You would say it hath been all in all his study: 
List his discourse of war, and you shall hear 
A fearful battle rendered you in music: 
Turn him to any cause of policy. 

The Gordian knot" of it he will unloose, 25 

Familiar as his garter: that, when he speaks, 
The air, a charter'd libertine," is still. 
And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears," 
To steal his sweet and honey'd sentences; 
So that the art and practic part of life 30 

Must be the mistress to this theoric:'* 
Which is a wonder how his grace should glean it, 

^ Destroyed. 2 SJ^ 

2 Current. ■* A church dignitary. 



SCENE I.] HENRY THE FIFTH 15 

Since his addiction was to courses vain, 

His companies unletter'd, rude, and shallow, 

His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports, 

And never noted in him any study, » 

Any retirement, any sequestration ^ 5 

From open haunts and popularity. 

Ely. The strawberry grows underneath the nettle, 
And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best 
Neighbored by fruit of baser quality: 

And so the prince obscur'd his contemplation 10 

Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt, 
Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night. 
Unseen, yet crescive^ in his faculty. 

Canterbury. It must be so; for miracles are ceas'd, 
And therefore we must needs admit the means 15 

How things are perfected. 

Ely. But, my good lord, 

How now for mitigation of this bill " 
Urg'd by the commons .f* Doth his majesty 
Incline to it, or no? 20 

Canterbury. He seems indifferent, 

Or rather swaying more upon our part 
Than cherishing the exhibiters^ against us; 
For I have made an offer to his majesty, — 
Upon our spiritual convocation ^ 25 

And in regard of causes now in hand. 
Which I have opened to his grace at large. 
As touching France, — to give a greater sum 
Than ever at one time the clergy yet 
Did to his predecessors part withal. 30 

Ely. How did this offer seem receiv'd, my lord ? 

Canterbury. With good acceptance of his majesty; 

^ Seclusion. ^ Growing. 

^ Those who presented the bill. ■* General meeting. 



l6 SHAKESPEARE [acti. 

Save that there was not time enough to hear, 
As I perceivM his grace would fain have done, 
The severals and unhidden passages 
Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms, 
And generally to the crown and seat of France 
Deriv'd from Edward, his great-grandfather. 

Ely. What was the impediment that broke this off? 

Canterbury. The French ambassador upon that instant 
Crav'd audience; and the hour, I think, is come 
To give him hearing: is it four o'clock? lo 

Ely. It is. 

Canterbury. Then go we in, to know his embassy; 
Which I could with a ready guess declare. 
Before the Frenchman speak a word of it. 14 

Ely. I'll wait upon you, and I long to hear it. [Exeunt. 

Scene II. The same. The Presence-chamber. 

Enter King Henry, Gloucester, Bedford, Exeter, War- 
wick, Westmoreland, and Attendants. 

King Henry. Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury? 

Exeter. Not here in presence. 

King Henry. Send for him, good uncle. 

Westmoreland. Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege? ' 

King Henry. Not yet, my cousin: we would be resolv'd, 20 
Before we hear him, of some things of weight 
That task our thoughts, concerning us and France. 

Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of 

Ely. 

Canterbury. God and his angels guard your sacred throne, 
And make you long become it ! 

King Henry. Sure, we thank you. 25 



SCENE II.] HENRY THE FIFTH 1 7 

My learned lord; we pray you to proceed 

And justly and religiously unfold 

Why the law Salique" that they have in France 

Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim. 

And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord, 5 

That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading, 

Or nicely charge your understanding soul 

With opening titles miscreate,^ whose right 

Suits not in native colors with the truth: 

For God doth know how many now in health 10 

Shall drop their blood in approbation 

Of what your reverence shall incite us to. 

Therefore take heed how you impawn ^ our person, 

How you awake our sleeping sword of war; 

We charge you, in the name of God, take heed; 15 

For never two such kingdoms did contend 

Without much fall of blood; whose guiltless drops 

Are every one a woe, a sore complaint 

'Gainst him whose wrong gives edge into the swords 

That make such waste in brief mortality. 20 

Under this conjuration speak, my lord; 

For we will hear, note, and believe in heart 

That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd 

As pure as sin with baptism. 

Canterbury. Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you 
peers, 26 

That owe yourselves, your lives, and services 
To this imperial throne. There is no bar 
To make against your highness' claim to France 
But this, which they produce from Pharamond," — 30 

*In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant:' 
*No woman shall succeed in Salique land;' 

1 Forged. 2 Pledge. 



1 8 SHAKESPEARE [act 

Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze^ 

To be the realm of France, and Pharamond 

The founder of this law and female bar. 

Yet their own authors faithfully affirm 

That the land Salique is in Germany, 5 

Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe; 

Where Charles the Great, having subdued the Saxons, 

There left behind and settled certain French; 

Who, holding in disdain the German women 

For some dishonest manners of their life, 10 

Establish'd then this law; to wit, no female 

Should be inheritrix in Salique land: 

Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala, 

Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen. 

Then doth it well appear the Salique law 15 

Was not devised for the realm of France: 

Nor did the French possess the Salique land 

Until fout hundred one and twenty years 

After defunction ^ of King Pharamond, 

Idly supposed the founder of this law, 20 

Who died within the year of our redemption 

Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the Great 

Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French 

Beyond the river Sala, in the year 

Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say, 25 

King Pepin, which deposed Childeric, 

Did, as heir general, being descended 

Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair, 

Make claim and title to the crown of France. 

Hugh Capet also, — who usurp'd the crown 30 

Of Charles the duke of Lorraine, sole heir male 

Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great, — 

1 Misinterpret. ^ Death. 



SCENE II.] HENRY THE FIFTH 1 9 

To fine his title with some shows of truth, 

Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught, 

Convey'd himself as heir to the Lady Lingare, 

Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son 

To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son 5 

Of Charles the Great. Also King Lewis the Tenth, 

Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet, 

Could not keep quiet in his conscience. 

Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied 

That fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother, 10 

Was lineal^ of the Lady Ermengare, 

Daughter to Charles the aforesaid duke of Lorraine: 

By the which marriage the line of Charles the Great 

Was re-united to the crown of France. 

So that, as clear as is the summer's sun, 15 

King Pepin's title and Hugh Capet's claim, 

King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear 

To hold in right and title of the female. 

So do the kings of France unto this day; 

Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law 20 

To bar your highness claiming from the female, 

And rather choose to hide them in a net 

Than amply to imbare ^ their crooked titles 

Usurp'd from you and your progenitors. 

King Henry. May I with right and conscience make this 
claim .? 26 

Canterbury. The sin upon my head, dread sovereign! 
For in the book of Numbers is it writ. 
When the man dies, let the inheritance 

Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord, 30 

Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag; 
Look back into your mighty ancestors: 

^ Of direct descent, 2 Secure. 



20 SHAKESPEARE 

Go, my dread lord, to your great-grandsire's tomb, 

From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit, 

And your great-uncle's, Edward the Black Prince, 

Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy," 

Making defeat on the full power of France, 5 

Whiles his most mighty father on a hill 

Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp 

Forage in blood of French nobility. 

O noble English, that could entertain 

With half their forces the full pride of France, 10 

And let another half stand laughing by. 

All out of work and cold for action ! 

Ely. Awake remembrance of these valiant dead. 
And with your puissant arm renew their feats. 
You are their heir; you sit upon their throne; 15 

The blood and courage that renowned them 
Runs in your veins; and my thrice-puissant liege 
Is in the very May-morn of his youth. 
Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises. 

Exeter. Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth 20 
Do all expect that you should rouse yourself. 
As did the former lions of your blood. 

Westmoreland. They know your grace hath cause and 
means and might; 
So hath your highness; never king of England 25 

Had nobles richer and more loyal subjects, 
Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England 
And lie pavilion'd ^ in the fields of France. 

Canterbury. O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege, 
With blood and sword and fire to win your right; 30 

In aid whereof we of the spirituality^ 
Will raise your highness such a mighty sum 

^ Tented. 2 J^g clergy. 



SCENE 11.] HENRY THE FIFTH 21 

As never did the clergy at one time 
Bring in to any of your ancestors. 

King Henry. We must not only arm to invade the French, 
But lay down our proportions ^ to defend 
Against the Scot, who will make road upon us 5 

With all advantages. 

Canterbury. They of those marches,- gracious sovereign. 
Shall be a wall sufficient to defend 
Our inland from the pilfering borderers. 

King Henry. We do not mean the coursing snatchers^ 
only, 1 1 

But fear the main intendment^ of the Scot, 
Who hath been still a giddy ^ neighbor to us; 
For you shall read that my great-grandfather 
Never went with his forces into France 15 

But that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom" 
Came pouring, like the tide into a breach. 
With ample and brim fulness of his force, 
Galling the gleaned land with hot assays," 
Girding with grievous siege castles and towns; 20 

That England, being empty of defense, 
Hath shook and trembled at the ill neighborhood. 

Canterbury. She hath been then more fear'd than harm'd, 
my liege; 
For hear her but exampled by herself: 25 

When all her chivalry hath been in France, 
And she a mourning widow of her nobles. 
She hath herself not only well defended. 
But taken and impounded ^ as a stray 

The Kings of Scots; whom she did send to France, 30 

To fill King Edward's fame with prisoner kings. 
And make her chronicle as rich with praise 

^ Sufficient forces. 2 "fl^e border land. ^Robbers. 

^ Purpose. ^ Changeable. ^ Shut up. 



22 SHAKESPEARE [ac? 

As is the ooze and bottom of the sea 
With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries. 

Westmoreland. But there's a saying very old and true, 
' If that you will France win, 

Then with Scotland first begin:' 5 

For once the eagle England being in prey. 
To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot 
Comes sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs. 
Playing the mouse in absence of the cat, 
To tear and havoc more than she can eat. 10 

Exeter. It follows then the cat must stay at home: 
Yet that is but a curst necessity. 
Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries. 
And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves. 
While that the armed hand doth fight abroad, 15 

The advised head defends itself at home; 
For government, though high and low and lower, 
Put into parts, doth keep in one consent, 
Congreeing ^ in a full and natural close, 
Like music. . 20 

Canterbury. Therefore doth heaven divide 
The state of man in divers ^ functions. 
Setting endeavor in continual motion; 
To which is fixed, as an aim or butt. 

Obedience: for so work the honey-bees, 25 

Creatures that by a rule in nature teach 
The act of order to a peopled kingdom. 
They have a king and officers of sorts; 
Where some, like magistrates, correct at home. 
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad, 30 

Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings, 
Make boot^ upon the summer's velvet buds, 

1 Agreeing. 2 Different. ^ Plunder. 



SCENE II.] HENRY THE FIFTH 23 

Which pillage they with merry march bring home 

To the tent-royal of their emperor; 

Who, busied in his majesty, surveys 

The singing masons building roofs of gold. 

The civil citizens kneading up the honey, 5 

The poor mechanic porters crowding in 

Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate, 

The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum. 

Delivering o'er to executors pale 

The lazy yawning drone. I this infer, 10 

That many things, having full reference 

To one consent, may work contrariously: 

As many arrows, loosed several ways. 

Come to one mark, as many ways meet in one town, 

As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea, 15 

As many lines close in the dial's center; 

So may a thousand actions, once afoot, 

End in one purpose, and be all well borne 

Without defeat. Therefore to France, my liege. 

Divide your happy England into four; 20 

Whereof take you one quarter into France, 

And you withal shall make all Gallia ^ shake. 

If we, with thrice such powers left at home, 

Cannot defend our own doors from the dog. 

Let us be worried, and our nation lose 25 

The name of hardiness and policy. 

King Henry. Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin. 

[Exeunt some Attendants. 
Now are we well resolv'd; and, by God's help. 
And yours, the noble sinews of our power, 
France being ours, we'll bend it to our awe, 30 

Or break it all to pieces: or there we'll sit, 



IF 



ranee. 



24 SHAKESPEARE [act i. 

Ruling in large and ample empery ^ 

O'er France and all her almost kingly dukedoms. 

Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn, 

Tombless, with no remembrance over them: 

Either our history shall with full mouth 5 

Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave. 

Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth, 

Not worshipped with a waxen epitaph.'^ 

Enter Ambassadors of France. 

Now are we well prepar'd to know the pleasure 

Of our fair cousin Dauphin;" for we hear 10 

Your greeting is from him, not from the king. 

First Ambassador. May 't please your majesty to give us 
leave 
Freely to render what we have in charge; 

Or shall we sparingly show you far off 15 

The Dauphin's meaning and our embassy.? 

King Henry. We are no tyrant, but a Christian king. 
Unto whose grace our passion is as subject 
As are our wretches fetter'd in our prisons: 
Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness 20 

Tell us the Dauphin's mind. 

First Ambassador. Thus then, in few. 

Your highness, lately sending into France, 
Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right 
Of your great predecessor. King Edward the Third. 25 

In answer of which claim, the prince our master 
Says that you savor too much of your youth,^ 
And bids you be advis'd there's nought in France 
That can be with a nimble galliard^ won; 
You cannot revel into dukedoms there. 30 

^ Dominion. ^ A lively dance. 



SCENE II.] HENRY THE FIFTH 25 

He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit, 

This tun^ of treasure; and, in Heu of this, 

Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim 

Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks. 

King Henry. What treasure, uncle.? 5 

Exeter. Tennis-balls, my liege. 

King Henry. We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with 
us; 

His present and your pains we thank you for. 

When we have match'd our rackets to these balls, 10 

We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set 

Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard." 

Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler^ 

That all the courts of France will be disturbed 

With chases.^ And we understand him well, 15 

How he comes o'er us " with our wilder days, 

Not measuring what use we made of them. 

We never valued this poor seat of England, 

And therefore, living hence, did give ourself 

To barbarous license; as 'tis ever common 20 

That men are merriest when they are from home. 

But tell the Dauphin I will keep my state. 

Be like a king, and show my sail of greatness 

When I do rouse me in my throne of France: 

For that I have laid by my majesty 25 

And plodded like a man for working-days. 

But I will rise there with so full a glory 

That I will dazzle all the eyes of France, 

Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us. 

And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his 30 

Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones; and his soul 

Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance 

^ A barrel. 2 Contestant. 

^ Certain plays in the old game of tennis. 



i 



26 SHAKESPEARE [act i 

That shall fly with them: for many a thousand widows 

Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands, 

Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down; 

And some are yet ungotten and unborn 

That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn. 

But this lies all within the will of God, 

To whom I do appeal; and in whose name 

Tell you the Dauphin I am coming on. 

To venge me as I may, and to put forth 

My rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause. 10 

So get you hence in peace; and tell the Dauphin 

His jest will savor but of shallow wit. 

When thousands weep more than did laugh at it. — 

Convey them with safe conduct. — Fare you well. 

[Exeunt Ambassadors. 
Exeter. This was a merry message. 15 

King Henry. We hope to make the sender blush at it. 
Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour 
That may give furtherance to our expedition; 
For we have now no thought in us but France, 
Save those to God, that run before our business. 20 

Therefore let our proportions for these wars 
Be soon collected, and all things thought upon 
That may with reasonable swiftness add 
More feathers to our wings; for, God before. 
We '11 chide this Dauphin at his father's door. 25 

Therefore let every man now task his thought. 
That this fair action may on foot be brought. 

[Exeunt. Flourish.^ 
^ A strain of music. 



I! 



PROLOGUE.] HENRY THE FIFTH 27 

ACT II 

PROLOGUE 
Enter Chorus. 

Chorus. Now all the youth of England are on fire, 
And silken dalliance" in the wardrobe lies: 
Now thrive the armorers, and honor's thought 
Reigns solely in the breast of every man. 
They sell the pasture now to buy the horse, 5 

Following the mirror of all Christian kings. 
With winged heels, as English Mercuries;" 
For now sits Expectation in the air. 
And hides a sword from hilts unto the point 
With crowns imperial, crowns, and coronets, 10 

Promis'd to Harry and his followers. 
The French, advis'd by good intelligence 
Of this most dreadful preparation. 
Shake in their fear, and with pale policy 
Seek to divert the English purposes. 15 

O England! model to thy inward greatness. 
Like little body with a mighty heart, 
What might'st thou do, that honor would thee do, 
Were all thy children kind and natural! 

But see thy fault! France hath in thee found out 20 

A nest of hollow bosoms," which he fills 
With treacherous crowns; and three corrupted men. 
One, Richard Earl of Cambridge, and the second, 
Henry Lord Scroop of Masham, and the third. 
Sir Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland, 25 

Have, for the gilt of France, — O guilt indeed! — 
Confirm'd conspiracy with fearful France; 
And by their hands this grace of kings must die, 



28 SHAKESPEARE [act 

If hell and treason hold their promises, 

Ere he take ship for France, and in Southampton. 

Linger your patience on, and we'll digest 

The abuse of distance; " force a play. 

The sum is paid; the traitors are agreed; 

The king is set from London; and the scene 

Is now transported, gentles, to Southampton; 

There is the playhouse now, there must you sit: 

And thence to France shall we convey you safe, 

And bring you back, charming the narrow seas lo 

To give you gentle pass; for, if we may, 

We'll not offend one stomach with our play. 

But, till the king come forth, and not till then, 

Unto Southampton do we shift our scene. [Exit. 

Scene I. London. A Street. 
Enter Corporal Nym and Lieutenant Bardolph. 

Bardolph. Well met, Corporal Nym. " 15 

Nym. Good morrow. Lieutenant Bardolph. 

'Bardolph. What, are Ancient" Pistol and you friends yet? 

Nym. For my part, I care not: I say little; but when time 
shall serve, there shall be smiles; but that shall be as it may. 
I dare not fight; but I will wink and hold out mine iron: it 
is a simple one; but what though? it will toast cheese, and 
it will endure cold as another man's sword will: and there's 
an end. 23 

Bardolph. I will bestow a breakfast to make you friends; 
and we'll be all three sworn brothers to France: let it be 
so, good Corporal Nym. 

Nym. Faith, I will live so long as I may, that's the certain 
of it; and when I cannot live any longer, I will do as I may; 
that is my rest, that is the rendezvous ^ of it. 29 

^ Meeting place. Here used ignorantly for " conclusion." 



SCENE I.] HENRY THE FIFTH 29 

Bardolph. It is certain, corporal, that he is married to 
Nell Quickly: and certainly she did you wrong; for you were 
troth-plight ^ to her. 

Nym. I cannot tell; things must be as they may: men 
may sleep, and they may have their throats about them at 
that time; and some say knives have edges. It must be as 
it may: though patience be a tired mare, yet she will plod. 
There must be conclusions. Well, I cannot tell. 

Enter Pistol and Hostess. 

Bardolph. Here comes Ancient Pistol and his wife: good 
corporal, be patient here. How now, mine host Pistol! 10 

Pistol. Base tike,^ call'st thou me host.? 
Now, by this hand, I swear, I scorn the term; 
Nor shall my Nell keep lodgers. 

Hostess. No, by my troth, not long. [Nym and Pistol draw.] 
O well a day, Lady, if he be not drawn now! we shall see 
wilful murder committed. 16 

Bardolph. Good lieutenant! good corporal! ofFer nothing 
here. 

Nym. Pish! 

Pistol. Pish for thee, Iceland dog! thou prick-ear'd cur 
of Iceland! 21 

Hostess. Good Corporal Nym, show thy valor, and put up 
your sword. 

Nym. Will you shog^ off.? I would have you solus. ^ 

Pistol. 'Solus,' egregious dog? O viper vile! 25 

The 'solus' in thy most mervailous^ face; 
The 'solus' in thy teeth, and in thy throat. 
And in thy hateful lungs, yea, in thy maw, perdy, 
And, which is worse, within thy nasty mouth! 

1 Engaged. ^Cxir. 'Move. 

* Alone. Pistol, not knowing what the word means, takes it as an insult. 

5 Marvelous, i. e., ugly. 



30 SHAKESPEARE [act ii. 

I do retort the 'solus' in thy bowels; 
For I can take, and Pistol's cock is up, 
And flashing fire will follow. 

Nym. I am not Barbason;^ you cannot conjure me. I have 
an humor to knock you indifferently well. If you grow foul 
with me, Pistol, I will scour you with my rapier, as I may, 
in fair terms: and that's the humor of it. 

Pistol. O braggart vile, and damned furious wight! 
The grave doth gape, and doting death is near; 
Therefore exhale. » lo 

Bardolph. Hear me, hear me what I say: he that strikes 
the first stroke. Til run him up to the hilts, as I am a soldier. 

[Draws. 

Pistol. An oath of mickle might; and fury shall abate. 
Give me thy fist, thy fore-foot to me give; 
Thy spirits are most tall. 15 

Nym. I will cut thy throat, one time or other, in fair 
terms; that is the humor of it. 

Pistol. 'Couple a gorge! '" 
That is the word. I thee defy again. 

hound of Crete, think'st thou my spouse to get.? 20 
No; to the spitaH go. 

And from the powdering-tub of infamy 
Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind," 
Doll Tearsheet she by name, and her espouse: 

1 have, and I will hold, the quondam ^ Quickly 25 
For the only she; and — pauca,^ there's enough. 

Go to. 

Enter the Boy. 

Boy. Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master,** 
and you, hostess; he is very sick, and would to bed. — Good 

^ Hospital, 

2 Former. The hostess is called Mrs. Quickly in Part I and Part II of 
Shakespeare's Henry IV. s j^ f^^, words. 



« 



SCENE I.] HENRY THE FIFTH 3 1 

Bardolph, put thy face between his sheets, and do the office 
of a warming-pan. Faith, he's very ill. 

Bardolph. Away, you rogue! 

Hostess. By my troth, he'll yield the crow a pudding one 
of these days. The king has killed his heart. Good hus- 
band, come home presently. [Exeunt Hostess and Boy. 

Bardolph. Come, shall I make you two friends.? We 
must to France together: why should we keep knives to 
cut one another's throats.? 9 

Pistol. Let floods o'erswell, and fiends for food howl on ! 

Nym. You'll pay me the eight shillings I won of you at 
betting .? 

Pistol. Base is the slave that pays. 

Nym. That now I will have: that's the humor of it. 

Pistol. As manhood shall compound: push home. 15 

[They draw. 

Bardolph. By this sword, he that makes the first thrust, 
I'll kill him; by this sword, I will. 

Pistol. Sword is an oath, and oaths must have their course. 

Bardolph. Corporal Nym, an thou wilt be friends, be 
friends; an thou wilt not, why, then, be enemies with me too. 
Prithee, put up. 21 

Nym. I shall have my eight shillings I won of you at 
betting ? 

Pistol. A noble shalt thou have, and present pay; 
And liquor likewise will I give to thee, 25 

And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood: 
ril live by Nym, and Nym shall live by me. 
Is not this just.? for I shall sutler^ be 
Unto the camp, and profits will accrue. 
Give me thy hand. 30 

Nym. I shall have my noble .? 

^ A camp follower who sells supplies to an army. 



32 SHAKESPEARE [act ii. 

Pistol. In cash most justly paid. 

Nym. Well, then, that's the humor oft. 

Re-enter Hostess. 

Hostess. As ever you came of women, come in quickly 
to Sir John. Ah, poor heart! he is so shaked of a burning 
quotidian tertian,^ that it is most lamentable to behold. 
Sweet men, come to him. 6 

Nym. The king hath run bad humors on the knight; that's 
the even of it. 

Pistol. Nym, thou hast spoke the right; 
His heart is fracted ^ and corroborate.^ lo 

Nym. The king is a good king; but it must be as it may: 
he passes some humors and careers." 

Pistol. Let us condole the knight; for lambkins we will live. 

Scene H. Southampton. A Council-chamber. 

Enter Exeter, Bedford, and Westmoreland. 

Bedford. 'Fore God, his grace is bold, to trust these traitors. 

Exeter. They shall be apprehended by and by. 15 

Westmoreland. How smooth and even they do bear them- 
selves! 
As if allegiance in their bosoms sat. 
Crowned with faith and constant loyalty. 

Bedford. The king hath note of all that they intend, 20 

By interception which they dream not of. 

Exeter. Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow. 
Whom he hath dull'd and cloy'd ^ with gracious favors, — 
That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell 
His sovereign's life to death and treachery! 25 

^ Broken. 

2 Made stronger. Pistol intended to use a word that means "weakened." 

^ Satiated. 



SCENE II.] HENRY THE FIFTH 33 

Trumpets sound. Enter King Henry, Scroop, Cambridge, 
Grey, and Attendants. 

King Henry. Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard. 
My Lord of Cambridge, and my kind Lord of Masham, 
And you, my gentle knight, give me your thoughts: 
Think you not that the powers we bear with us 
Will cut their passage through the force of France, 5 

Doing the execution and the act 
For which we have in head assembled them ? 

Scroop. No doubt, my liege, if each man do his best. 

King Henry. I doubt not that; since we are well persuaded 
We carry not a heart with us from hence 10 

That grows not in a fair consent with ours, 
Nor leave not one behind that doth not wish 
Success and conquest to attend on us. 

Cambridge. Never was monarch better fear'd and lov'd 
Than is your majesty: there's not, I think, a subject 15 

That sits in heart-grief and uneasiness 
Under the sweet shade of your government. 

Grey. True: those that were your father's enemies 
Have steep'd their galls in honey," and do serve you 
With hearts create of duty and of zeal. 20 

King Henry. We therefore have great cause of thankful- 
ness; 
And shall forget the office of our hand. 
Sooner than quittance of desert and merit 
According to the weight and worthiness. 25 

Scroop. So service shall with steeled sinews toil, 
And labor shall refresh itself with hope, 
To do your grace incessant services. 

King Henry. We judge no less. — Uncle of Exeter, 
Enlarge the man committed yesterday, 30 

That rail'd against our person: we consider 



34 SHAKESPEARE [act ii.J 

It was excess of wine that set him on; 
And on his more advice we pardon him. 

Scroop. That's mercy, but too much security: 
Let him be punish'd, sovereign, lest example 
Breed, by his sufferance, more of such a kind. 

King Henry. O, let us yet be merciful. 

Cambridge. So may your highness, and yet punish too. 

Grey. Sir, 

You show great mercy, if you give him life. 
After the taste of much correction. lo 

King Henry. Alas, your too much care and love of me 
Are heavy orisons ^ 'gainst this poor wretch ! 
If little faults, proceeding on distemper. 
Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we stretch our eye 
When capital crimes, chew'd, swallow'd, and digested, 15 

Appear before us.? — We'll yet enlarge that man. 
Though Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey, in their dear care 
And tender preservation of our person, 
Would have him punish'd. — And now to our French causes: 
Who are the late commissioners .? 20 

Cambridge. I one, my lord: 
Your highness bade me ask for it to-day. 

Scroop. So did you me, my liege. 

Grey. And I, my royal sovereign. 

King Henry. Then, Richard Earl of Cambridge, there is 
yours; — 26 

There yours, Lord Scroop of Masham.; — and, sir knight, 
Grey of Northumberland, this same is yours: — 
Read them; and know, I know your worthiness. 
My lord of Westmoreland, and uncle Exeter, 30 

We will aboard to-night. — Why, how now, gentlemen! 
What see you in those papers that you lose 

^ Petitions. 



SCENE II.] HENRY THE FIFTH 35 

So much complexion? — Look ye, how they change! 
Their cheeks are paper. — Why, what read you there, 
That hath so cowarded and chas'd your blood 
Out of appearance? 

Cambridge. I do confess my fault; 5 

And do submit me to your highness' mercy. 

^ \ To which we all appeal. 

bcroop. J 

King Henry. The mercy that was quick ^ in us but late, 
By your own counsel is suppress'd and kill'd: 
You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy; 10 

For your own reasons turn into your bosoms. 
As dogs upon their masters, worrying you. — 
See you, my princes and my noble peers, 
These English monsters! My lord of Cambridge here, — 
You know how apt our love was to accord 15 

To furnish him with all appertinents^ 
Belonging to his honor; and this man 
Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspir'd, 
And sworn unto the practices of France, 

To kill us here in Hampton: to the which 20 

This knight, no less for bounty bound to us 
Than Cambridge is, hath likewise sworn. — But, O, 
What shall I say to thee. Lord Scroop? thou cruel, 
Ingrateful, savage, and inhuman creature! 
Thou that didst bear the key of all my counsels, 25 

That knew'st the very bottom of my soul. 
That almost might'st have coin'd me into gold, 
Wouldst thou have practis'd on me for thy use. 
May it be possible that foreign hire 

Could out of thee extract one spark of evil 30 

That might annoy my finger? 'tis so strange, 

^ Alive. 2 Appropriate things. 



36 SHAKESPEARE [act ii. 

That, though the truth of it stands off as gross 

As black and white, my eye will scarcely see it. 

Treason and murder ever kept together, 

As two yoke-devils sworn to cither's purpose, 

Working so grossly in a natural cause, 5 

That admiration ^ did not whoop ^ at them; 

But thou, 'gainst all proportion, didst bring in 

Wonder to wait on treason and on murder: 

And whatsoever cunning fiend it was 

That wrought upon thee so preposterously 10 

Hath got the voice in hell for excellence. 

All other devils that suggest by treasons 

Do botch and bungle up damnation 

With patches, colors, and with forms, being fetch'd 

From glistering semblances of piety; 15 

But he that temper'd thee bade thee stand up. 

Gave thee no instance why thou should'st do treason. 

Unless to dub thee with the name of traitor. 

If that same demon that hath guU'd thee thus 

Should with his lion gait walk the whole world, 20 

He might return to vasty Tartar** back, 

And tell the legions, *I can never win 

A soul so easy as that Englishman's.' 

O, how hast thou with jealousy infected 

The sweetness of affiance!^ Show men dutiful? 25 

Why, so didst thou: seem they grave and learned? 

Why, so didst thou: come they of noble family? 

Why, so didst thou: seem they religious? 

Why, so didst thou: or are they spare in diet, 

Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger, 30 

Constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood, 

Garnish'd and deck'd in modest complement, 

^ Public astonishment. ^ Cry out. ^ Trust. 



SCENE ii.l HENRY THE FIFTH 37 

Not working with the eye without the ear, 

And but in purged judgment trusting neither? 

Such and so finely bolted^ didst thou seem: 

And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot, 

To mark the full-fraught man" and best indued^ 5 

With some suspicion. I will weep for thee; 

For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like 

Another fall of man. — Their faults are open: 

Arrest them to the answer of the law; 

And God acquit them of their practices! 10 

Exeter. I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of 
Richard Earl of Cambridge. 

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Henry Lord 
Scroop of Masham. 

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Thomas Grey, 
knight, of Northumberland. 16 

Scroop. Our purposes God justly hath discover'd, 
And I repent my fault more than my death; 
Which I beseech your highness to forgive. 
Although my body pay the price of it. 20 

Cambridge. For me, the gold of France did not seduce, 
Although I did admit it as a motive 
The sooner to effect what I intended: 
But God be thanked for prevention; 

Which I in sufferance^ heartily will rejoice, 25 

Beseeching God and you to pardon me. 

Grey. Never did faithful subject more rejoice 
At the discovery of most dangerous treason 
Than I do at this hour joy o'er myself. 

Prevented from a damned enterprise: 30 

My fault, but not my body, pardon, sovereign. 
King Henry. God quit you in his mercy! Hear your sentence. 

1 Sifted, i. e., free from faults. 2 Endowed mentally. 

^ Suffering. 



38 SHAKESPEARE [act 

You have conspir'd against our royal person, 
Join'd with an enemy proclaim'd, and from his coffers 
Received the golden earnest^ of our death; 
Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter, 
His princes and his peers to servitude, 5 

His subjects to oppression and contempt. 
And his whole kingdom into desolation. 
Touching our person seek we no revenge; 
But we our kingdom's safety must so tender. 
Whose ruin you have sought, that to her laws 10 

We do deliver you. Get you therefore hence, 
Poor miserable wretches, to your death; 
The taste whereof, God of his mercy give 
You patience to endure, and true repentance 
Of all your dear offenses! — Bear them hence. 15 

[Exeunt Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey, guarded. 
Now, lords, for France; the enterprise whereof 
Shall be to you, as us, like glorious. 
We doubt not of a fair and lucky war. 
Since God so graciously hath brought to light 
This dangerous treason lurking in our way 20 

To hinder our beginnings. We doubt not now 
But every rub ^ is smoothed on our way. 
Then forth, dear countrymen: let us deliver 
Our puissance into the hand of God, 

Putting it straight in expedition. 25 

Cheerly to sea; the signs of war advance: 
No king of England, if not king of France. [Exeunt. 

Scene HI. London. Before a Tavern. 

Enter Pistol, Hostess, Nym, Bardolph, and Boy. 

Hostess. Prithee, honey-sweet husband, let me bring thee 
aines. 
1 Money paid to bind a bargain. 2 Difficulty. 



toSt"-—'^ 



SCENE III.] HENRY THE FIFTH 39 

Pistol. No; for my manly heart doth yearn. — 
Bardolph, be blithe: Nym, rouse thy vaunting veins: 
Boy, bristle thy courage up; for FalstafFhe is dead, 
And we must yearn therefore. 

Bardolph. Would I were with him, wheresome'er he is, 
either in heaven or in hell! 6 

Hostess. Nay, sure, he's not in hell: he's in Arthur's 
bosom," if ever man went to Arthur's bosom. A' made a 
finer end, and went away an it had been any christom child;" 
a' parted even just between twelve and one, even at the turn- 
ing o' the tide: for after I saw him fumble with the sheets 
and play with flowers and smile upon his fingers' ends, I 
knew there was but one way; for his nose was as sharp as a 
pen, and a' babbled of green fields. *How now, Sir John!' 
quoth I: 'what, man! be o' good cheer.' So a'cried out *God, 
God, God!' three or four times. Now I, to comfort him, bid 
him a' should not think of God; I hoped there was no need to 
trouble himself with any such thoughts yet. So a' bade me 
lay more clothes on his feet: I put my hand into the bed and 
felt them, and they were as cold as any stone; then I felt to 
his knees, and they were as cold as any stone, and so upward 
and upward, and all was as cold as any stone. 

Nym. They say he cried out of sack. 

Hostess. Ay, that a' did. 

Bardolph. And of women. 25 

Hostess. Nay, that a' did not. 

Boy. Yes, that a' did; and said they were devils incarnate. 

Hostess. A' could never abide carnation; 'twas a color he 
never liked. 

Boy. Do you not remember, a' saw a flea stick upon Bar- 
dolph's nose, and a' said it was a black soul burning in hell- 
fire? 32 

Bardolph. Well, the fuel is gone that maintained that fire; 
that's all the riches I got in his service. 



40 SHAKESPEARE [act ii. 

Nym. Shall we shog? the king will be gone from South- 
ampton. 

Pistol. Come, let's away. — My love, give me thy lips. 
Look to my chattels ^ and my movables : 

Let senses rule; the word is * Pitch and Pay:' 5 

Trust none; 

For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes, 
And hold-fast is the only dog, my duck: 
Therefore, Caveto" be thy counsellor. 

Go, clear thy crystals.^ — Yoke-fellows in arms, 10 

Let us to France; like horse-leeches, my boys, 
To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck! 

Boy. And that's but unwholesome food, they say. 

Pistol. Touch her soft mouth, and march. 

Bardolph. Farewell, hostess. [Kissing her. 

Nym. I cannot kiss, that is the humor of it; but, 
adieu. 17 

Pistol. Let housewifery appear: keep close, I thee com- 
mand.. 

Hostess. Farewell; adieu. [Exeunt. 

Scene IV. France. A Room in the Kings Palace. 

Flourish. Enter the French King, the Dauphin, the Dukes 
OF Berri and Bretagne, the Constable, and others. 

French King. Thus come the English with full power 
upon us; 
And more than carefully it us concerns 
To answer royally in our defenses. 

Therefore the Dukes of Berri and of Bretagne, 25 

Of Brabant and of Orleans, shall make forth. 
And you. Prince Dauphin, with all swift dispatch, 

^ Property. 2 "Wipe the tears from thine eye§, 



I 



SCENE IV.] HENRY THE FIFTH 41 

To line and new repair our towns of war 

With men of courage and with means defendant; 

For England his approaches makes as fierce 

As waters to the sucking of a gulf. 

It fits us then to be as provident 5 

As fear may teach us out of late examples 

Left by the fatal and neglected English 

Upon our fields. 

Dauphin. My most redoubted ^ father. 

It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe; 10 

For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom, 
Though war nor no known quarrel were in question. 
But that defenses, musters, preparations, 
Should be maintain'd, assembled, and collected, 
As were a war in expectation. 15 

Therefore, I say 'tis meet we all go forth 
To view the sick and feeble parts of France: 
And let us do it with no show of fear; 
No, with no more than if we heard that England 
Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance:" 20 

For, my good liege, she is so idly king'd. 
Her sceptre so fantastically borne 
By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth. 
That fear attends her not. 

Constable. O peace. Prince Dauphin! 25 

You are too much mistaken in this king: 
Question your grace the late ambassadors. 
With what great state he heard their embassy. 
How well supplied with noble counsellors. 
How modest in exception, and withal 30 

How terrible in constant resolution. 
And you shall find his vanities forespent ^ 
Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus," 

1 Dreaded, 2 Past. 



42 SHAKESPEARE [act ii. 

Covering discretion with a coat of folly; 

As gardeners do with ordure^ hide those roots 

That shall first spring and be most delicate. 

Dauphin. Well, 'tis not so, my lord high constable; 
But though we think it so, it is no matter: 
In cases of defense 'tis best to weigh 
The enemy more mighty than he seems: 
So the proportions of defense are fill'd; 
Which of a weak and niggardly projection 
Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat with scanting lo 

A little cloth. 

French King. Think we King Harry strong; 
And, princes, look you strongly arm to meet him. 
The kindred of him hath been flesh'd upon us; 
And he is bred out of that bloody strain 15 

That haunted us in our familiar paths. 
Witness our too much memorable shame 
When Cressy battle fatally was struck. 
And all our princes captiv'd by the hand 
Of that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales; 20 

Whiles that his mountain sire, on mountain standing. 
Up in the air, crown'd with the golden sun, 
Saw his heroical seed, and smil'd to see him, 
Mangle the work of nature and deface 

The patterns that by God and by French fathers • 25 

Had twenty years been made. This is a stem 
Of that victorious stock; and let us fear 
The native mightiness and fate of him. 

Enter a Messenger. 

Messenger. Ambassadors from Harry King of England 
Do crave admittance to your majesty. 30 

^ Fertilizer. 



i 



SCENE iv.l HENRY THE FIFTH 43 

French King. We'll give them present audience. Go, and 
bring them. [Exeunt Messenger and certain Lords. 

You see this chase is hotly follow'd, friends. 

Dauphin. Turn head, and stop pursuit; for coward dogs 
Most spend their mouths when what they seem to threaten 5 
Runs far before them. Good my sovereign, 
Take up the English short, and let them know 
Of what a monarchy you are the head: 
Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin 
As self-neglecting. 10 

Re-enter Lords, with Exeter and train, 

French King. From our brother England .? 

Exeter. From him; and thus he greets your majesty. 
He wills you, in the name of God Almighty, 
That you divest yourself^ and lay apart 

The borrowed glories that by gift of heaven, 15 

By law of nature and of nations, longs 
To him and to his heirs; namely, the crown 
And all wide-stretched honors that pertain 
By custom and the ordinance of times 

Unto the crown of France. That you may know 20 

'Tis no sinister nor no awkward claim, 
Pick'd from the worm-holes of long-vanish'd days. 
Nor from the dust of old oblivion rak'd, 
He sends you this most memorable line. 
In every branch truly demonstrative, 25 

Willing you overlook this pedigree; 
And when you find him evenly^ deriv'd . 

From his most fam'd of famous ancestors, 
Edward the Third, he bids you then resign 
Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held 30 

From him the native and true challenger. 

* Without doubt. 



•I 



44 SHAKESPEARE [act ii. 

French King. Or else what follows ? 

Exeter. Bloody constraint; for if you hide the crown 
Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it: 
Therefore in fiery tempest is he coming, 
In thunder and in earthquake, like a Jove," 5 

That, if requiring fail, he will compel; 
And bids you, in the bowels of the Lord, 
Deliver up the crown, and to take mercy 
On the poor souls for whom this hungry war 
Opens his vasty jaws; and on your head 10 

Turning the widows' tears, the orphans' cries, 
The dead men's blood, the pining maidens' groans, 
For husbands, fathers, and betrothed lovers, 
That shall be swallow'd in this controversy. 
This is his claim, his threatening, and my message; 15 

Unless the Dauphin be in presence here, 
To whom expressly I bring greeting too. 

French King. For us, we will consider of this further: 
To-morrow shall you bear our full intent 
Back to our brother England. 20 

Dauphin. For the Dauphin, 

I stand here for him: what to him from England.? 

Exeter. Scorn and defiance; slight regard, contempt, 
And any thing that may not misbecome 
The mighty sender, doth he prize you at. 25 

Thus says my king; and if your father's highness 
Do not, in grant of all demands at large. 
Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his majesty. 
He'll call you to so hot an answer of it. 

That caves and womby vaultages" of France 30 

Shall chide your trespass, and return your mock 
In second accent of his ordinance.^ 

Dauphin. Say, if my father render fair return, 



SCENE IV.] HENRY THE FIFTH 45 

It is against my will; for I desire 

Nothing but odds with England: to that end, 

As matching to his youth and vanity, 

I did present him with the Paris balls. 

Exeter. He'll make your Paris Louvre" shake for it, 5 

Were it the mistress court of mighty Europe: 
And, be assur'd, you'll find a difference. 
As we his subjects have in wonder found. 
Between the promise of his greener days 
And these he masters now. Now he weighs time 10 

Even to the utmost grain; that you shall read 
In your own losses, if he stay in France. 

French King. To-morrow shall you know our mind at full. 

Exeter. Dispatch us with all speed, lest that our king 
Come here himself to question our delay; 15 

For he is footed ^ in this land already. 

French King. You shall be soon dispatch'd with fair con- 
ditions: 
A night is but small breath and little pause 
To answer matters of this consequence. 20 

[Flourish. Exeunt. 

ACT III 
PROLOGUE 

Enter Chorus. 

Chorus. Thus with imagin'd wing our swift scene flies, 
In motion of no less celerity 

Than that of thought. Suppose that you have seen 
The well-appointed king at Hampton pier 
Embark his royalty; and his brave fleet 25 

^ Landed. 




46 SHAKESPEARE [act iii. 

With silken streamers the young Phoebus" fanning: 

Play with your fancies, and in them behold 

Upon the hempen tackle ship-boys climbing; 

Hear the shrill whistle which doth order give 

To sounds confus'd; behold the threaden sails, 

Borne with the invisible and creeping wind. 

Draw the huge bottoms through the furrow'd sea, 

Breasting the lofty surge. O, do but think 

You stand upon the rivage ^ and behold 

A city on the inconstant billows" dancing; lo 

For so appears this fleet majestical, 

Holding due course to Harfleur. Follow, follow! 

Grapple your minds to sternage" of this navy. 

And leave your England, as dead midnight still. 

Guarded with grandsires, babies, and old women, 15 

Either past or not arriv'd to pith and puissance; 

For who is he, whose chin is but enrich'd 

With one appearing hair, that will not follow 

These cull'd and choice-drawn cavaliers to France? 

Work, work your thoughts, and therein see a siege; 20 

Behold the ordnance on their carriages. 

With fatal mouths gaping on girded ^ Harfleur. 

Suppose the ambassador from the French comes back; 

Tells Harry that the king doth off"er him 

Katherine his daughter, and with her, to dowry, 25 

Some petty and unprofitable dukedoms. 

The offer likes not : and the nimble gunner 

With linstock^ now the devilish cannon touches, 

[Alarum, and chambers ^ go of. 
And down goes all before them. Still be kind. 
And eke out our performance with your mind. [Exit, 

1 Shore. 2 Encircled, i. e., besieged. 

^ A long stick formerly used to hold the fire that discharged a cannon. 
* Short cannon used in theaters in Shakespeare's time. 



SCENE I.] HENRY THE FIFTH 47 

Scene I. France. Before Harfleur. 

Alarum. Enter King Henry, Exeter, Bedford, Glouces- 
ter, and Soldiers, with scaling-ladders. 

King Henry. Once more unto the breach,^ dear friends, 
once more. 
Or close the wall up with our English dead! 
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man 
As modest stillness and humility; 5 

But when the blast of war blows in our ears. 
Then imitate the action of the tiger: 
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood. 
Disguise fair nature with hard-favor'd^ rage; 
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect; 10 

Let it pry through the portage of the head 
Like the brass cannon;" let the brow o'erwhelm it 
As fearfully as doth a galled rock^ 
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base, 
Swiird^ with the wild and wasteful ocean. 15 

Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide, 
Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit 
To his full height. On, on, you noble English, 
Whose blood is fet^ from fathers of war-proof, 
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders," 20 

Have in these parts from morn till even fought 
And sheath'd their swords for lack of argument! 
Dishonor not your mothers; now attest 
That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you. 
Be copy now to men of grosser blood," 25 

And teach them how to war! — And you, good yeomen. 
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here 

^ An opening made in the walls of the city. 2 Fierce looking. 

^ A rock worn by the action of the waves. ^ Washed. ^ Fetched. 



48 SHAKESPEARE [act iii. 

The mettle of your pasture ? ^ let us swear 

That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not, 

For there is none of you so mean and base, 

That hath not noble lustre in your eyes. 

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips. 

Straining upon the start. The game's afoot: 

Follow your spirit, and upon this charge 

Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!' 

[Exeunt. Alarum, and chambers go off. 

Scene II. The same. Another Part of the Field. 
Enter Nym, Bardolph, Pistol, and Boy. 

Bardolph. On, on, on, on, on! to the breach, to the breach! 
Nym. Pray thee, corporal, stay: the knocks are too hot; 
and, for mine own part, I have not a case of lives: the hu- 
mor of it is too hot, that is the very plain-song of it. 

Pistol. The plain-song is most just, for humors do abound: 
'Knocks go and come, God's vassals drop and die; 

And sword and shield, 15 

In bloody field. 
Doth win immortal fame.' 
Boy. Would I were in an alehouse in London! I would 
give all my fame for a pot of ale and safety. 

Pistol. And I: 20 

' If wishes would prevail with me, 
My purpose should not fail with me, 
But thither would I hie.' 
Boy. 'As duly, but not as truly. 

As bird doth sing on bough.' 25 

Enter Fluellen. 

Fluellen. Up to the preach, you dogs ! avaunt,^ you cullions ^ 

[Driving them forward. 
^ Begone. 2 Good-for-nothing fellows. 



SCENE II.] HENRY THE FIFTH 49 

Pistol. Be merciful, great duke, to men of mould ! 
Abate thy rage, abate thy manly rage. 
Abate thy rage, great duke! 
Good bawcock,^ bate thy rage; use lenity, sweet chuck !^ 

Nym. These be good humors! your honor wins bad 
humors. [Exeunt all hut Boy. 

Boy. As young as I am, I have observed these three swash- 
ers.^ I am boy to them all three: but all they three, though 
they would serve me, could not be man to me; for indeed 
three such antics ^ do not amount to a man. For Bardolph, 
he is white-livered and red-faced; by the means whereof 
a' faces it out, but fights not. For Pistol, he hath a killing 
tongue and a quiet sword; by the means whereof a' breaks 
words, and keeps whole weapons. For Nym, he hath heard 
that men of few words are the best men; and therefore he 
scorns to say his prayers, lest a' should be thought a cow- 
ard: but his few bad words are matched with as few good 
deeds; for a' never broke any man's head but his own, and 
that was against a post when he was drunk. They will steal 
any thing, and call it purchase. Bardolph stole a lute-case,^ 
bore it twelve leagues, and sold it for three half-pence. Nym 
and Bardolph are sworn brothers in filching^ and in Calais 
they stole a fire-shovel: I knew by that piece of service the 
men would carry coals. They would have me as familiar 
with men's pockets as their gloves or their hankerchers: 
which makes much against my manhood, if I should take 
from another's pocket to put into mine; for it is plain pock- 
eting up of wrongs. I must leave them, and seek some bet- 
ter service: their villany goes against my weak stomach, 
and therefore I must cast it up. [Exit. 

^ Fine fellow. 2 A term of endearment. 

^ Blusterers. ' ^ Fools. 

5 A case for a stringed instrument resembling a mandolin. 
^ Stealing. 



50 SHAKESPEARE [act iii. 

Enter Fluellen, Gower following. m 



Gower. Captain Fluellen, you must come presently to the 
mines; ^ the Duke of Gloucester would speak with you. 

Fluellen. To the mines! tell you the duke, it is not so goot 
to come to the mines; for, look you,^ the mines is not accord- 
ing to the disciplines of the war: the concavities^ of it is not 
sufficient; for, look you, th' athversary, you may discuss unto 
the duke, look you, is digt himself four yard under the coun- 
termines:^ I think a' will plow up all, if there is not petter di- 
rections. 9 

Gower. The Duke of Gloucester, to whom the order of the 
siege is given, is altogether directed by an Irishman, a very 
valiant gentleman, i' faith. 

Fluellen. It is Captain Macmorris, is it not? 

Gower. I think it be. 

Fluellen. He is an ass, as in the world : I will verify as much 
in his peard: he has no more directions in the true disciplines 
of the wars, look you, of the Roman disciplines, than is a 
puppy-dog. i8 

Enter Macmorris and Captain Jamy. 

Gower. Here a' comes; and the Scots captain, Captain 
Jamy, with him. 

Fluellen. Captain Jamy is a marvelous falorous gentle- 
man, that is certain; and of great expedition and knowledge 
in th' aunchient wars, upon my particular knowledge of his 
directions: he will maintain his argument as well as any 
military man in the world, in the disciplines of the pristine^ 
wars of the Romans. 26 

Jamy. I say gud-day. Captain Fluellen. 

^ Subterranean passages filled with explosives. 

2 Don't you see? ^ Depth. 

^ Mines dug to destroy the enemy's mines. ^ Primitive. 



li 



SCENE II.] HENRY THE FIFTH 5 1 

Fluellen, God-den to your worship, goot Captain James. 

Gozver. How now, Captain Macmorris! have you quit the 
mines? have the pioners^ given o'er? 

Macmorris. La! tish ill done: the work ish give over, the 
trumpet sound the retreat. By my hand, 1 swear, and my 
father's soul, the work ish ill done; it ish give over: I would 
have blowed up the town, la! in an hour. O, tish ill done, 
tish ill done; by my hand, tish ill done ! 8 

Fluellen. Captain Macmorris, I peseech you now, will you 
voutsafe me, look you, a few disputations with you, as partly 
touching or concerning the disciplines of the war, the Roman 
wars, in the way of argument, look you, and friendly commu- 
nication; partly to satisfy my opinion, and partly for the sat- 
isfaction, look you, of my mind, as touching the direction of 
the military discipline; that is the point. 15 

Jamy. It sail be vary gud, gud feith, gud captains bath: 
and I sail quit you with gud leve, as I may pick occasion; 
that sail I, marry. 

Macmorris. It is no time to discourse, the day is hot, 
and the weather, and the wars, and the king, and the dukes: 
it is no time to discourse. The town is beseeched, and the 
trumpet call us to the breach; and we talk, and do nothing: 
'tis shame for us all: 'tis shame to stand still; it is shame, by 
my hand: and there is throats to be cut, and works to be 
done; and there ish nothing done, la! 25 

Jamy. By the mess,^ ere these eyes of mine take themselves 
to slomber, ay'll do gud service, or ay'U lig^ i' the grund for 
it; ay, or go to death; and ay'll pay 't as valorously as I may, 
that sail I surely do, that is the brefF and the long. Marry, 
I wad full fain hear some question 'tween you tway. 30 

Fluellen. Captain Macmorris, I think, look you, under your 
correction, there is not many of your nation — 

^ Pioneers: soldiers who dig mines, make trenches and so forth. 
2 The Mass. 'Lie. 



52 SHAKESPEARE [act in. 

Macmorris. Of my nation! What ish my nation? What 
ish my nation? Who talks of my nation ish a villain, and a 
bastard, and a knave, and a rascal. 

Fluellen. Look you, if you take the matter otherwise than 
is meant, Captain Macmorris, peradventure I shall think you 
do not use me with that affability as in discretion you ought 
to use me, look you; peing as goot a man as yourself, poth 
in the disciplines of war, and in the derivation of my pirth, 
and in other particularities. 9 

Macmorris. I do not know you so good a man as myself: 
so save me, I will cut off your head. 

Gower. Gentlemen both, you will mistake each other. 

J amy. Au ! that's a foul fault. [A parley ^ sounded, 

Gower. The town sounds a parley. 14 

Fluellen. Captain Macmorris, when there is more petter 
opportunity to pe required, look you, I will pe so pold as to 
tell you I know the disciplines of war; and there is an end. 

[Exeunt. 

Scene III. The Same. Before the Gates. 

The Governor and some Citizens on the walls: the English 
forces below. Enter King Henry and his train. 

King Henry. How yet resolves the governor of the town ? 
This is the latest parle^ we will admit: 

Therefore to our best mercy give yourselves; 20 

Or, like to men proud of destruction. 
Defy us to our worst; for, as I am a soldier, 
A name that in my thoughts becomes me best, 
If I begin the battery^ once again, 

I will not leave the half-achieved ^ Harfleur 25 

Till in her ashes she lie buried. 

^ A trumpet call for a meeting between representatives of both armies. 
2 Conference. ^ Battering down the walls. * Half taken. 



SCENE III.] HENRY THE FIFTH ' S3 

The gates of mercy shall be all shut up, 

And the flesh'd soldier," rough and hard of heart, 

In liberty of bloody hand shall range 

With conscience wide as hell, mowing like grass 

Your fresh-fair virgins and your flowering infants. 5 

What is it then to me, if impious war, 

Array'd in flames, like to the prince of fiends. 

Do, with his smirch'd ^ complexion, all fell ^ feats 

Enlink'd to waste and desolation? 

What is't to me, when you yourselves are cause, 10 

If your pure maidens fall into the hand 

Of hot and forcing violation? 

What rein can hold licentious wickedness 

When down the hill he holds his fierce career? 

We may as bootless^ spend our vain command 15 

Upon the enraged soldiers in their spoil. 

As send precepts to the leviathan^ 

To come ashore. Therefore, you men of Harfleur, 

Take pity of your town and of your people. 

Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command; 20 

Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace 

O'erblows the filthy and contagious clouds 

Of heady murder, spoil, and villainy. 

If not, why, in a moment look to see 

The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand 25 

Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters; 

Your fathers taken by the silver beards. 

And their most reverend heads dash'd to the walls; 

Your naked infants spitted upon pikes. 

Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confus'd 30 

Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry" 

At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen." 

^ Begrimed, i. e., powder-stained. ^d-uel. 

' Uselessly. * A great water creature, possibly the whale. 



54 SHAKESPEARE [act 

What say you? will you yield, and this avoid, 
Or, guilty in defense, be thus destroy'd? 

Governor. Our expectation hath this day an end: 
The Dauphin, whom of succors ^ we entreated, 
Returns us that his powers are yet not ready 
To raise so great a siege. Therefore, great king. 
We yield our town and lives to thy soft mercy. 
Enter our gates; dispose of us and ours, 
For we no longer are defensible. 

King Henry. Open your gates. — Come, uncle Exeter, lo 
Go you and enter Harfleur; there remain. 
And fortify it strongly 'gainst the French: 
Use mercy to them all. For us, dear uncle. 
The winter coming on, and sickness growing 
Upon our soldiers, we will retire to Calais. 15 

To-night in Harfleur will we be your guest; 
To-morrow for the march are we addrest. 

[Flourish. The King and his train enter the town. 

Scene IV. Rouen. A Room in the Palace.^ 
Enter Katherine and Alice. 

Katherine. Alice, tu as ete en Angleterre, et tu paries bien 
le langage. 

Alice. Un peu, madame. 20 

Katherine. Je te prie, m'enseignez; il faut que j'apprenne 
a parler. Comment appelez-vous la main en Anglois.f* 

Alice. La main ? elle est appelee de hand. 

Katherine. De hand. Et les doigts? 

Alice. Les doigts? ma foi, j'oublie les doigts; mais je me 
souviendrai. Les doigts? je pense qu'ils sont appeles de 
fingres; oui, de fingres. 

^ For help. 2 See translation of this scene, page 127. 



SCENE IV.] HENRY THE FIFTH 55 

Katherine. La main, de hand; les doigts, de fingres. Je 
pense que je suis le bon ecolier; j'ai gagne deux mots d'Anglois 
vitement. Comment appelez-vous les ongles? 

Alice. Les ongles? nous les appelons de nails. 

Katherine. De nails. Ecoutez; dites-moi, si je parle bien: 
de hand, de fingres, et de nails. 6 

Alice. C'est bien dit, madame; il est fort bon Anglois. 

Katherine. Dites-moi I'Anglois pour le bras. 

Alice. De arm, madame. 

Katherine. Et le coude.f* 10 

Alice. De elbow. 

Katherine. De elbow. Je m'en fais la repetition de tous 
les mots que vous m'avez appris des a present. 

Alice. II est trop difficile, madame, comme je pense. 

Katherine. Excusez-moi, Alice; ecoutez: de hand, de fin- 
gres, de nails, de arm, de bilbow. 16 

Alice. De elbow, madame. 

Katherine. O Seigneur Dieu, je m'en oublie! de elbow. 
Comment appelez-vous le col? 

Alice. De neck, madame. 20 

Katherine. De nick. Et le menton ? 

Alice. De chin. 

Katherine. De sin. Le col, de nick; de menton, de sin. 

Alice. Oui. Sauf votre honneur, en verite, vous prononcez 
les mots aussi droit que les natifs d'Angleterre. 25 

Katherine. Je ne doute point d'apprendre, par la grace de 
Dieu, et en peu de temps. 

Alice. N'avez vous pas deja oublie ce que je vous ai en- 
seigne ? 

Katherine. Non, je reciterai a vous promptement: de hand, 
de fingres, de mails, — 31 

Alice. De nails, madame. 

Katherine. De nails, de arm, de ilbow. 

Alice. Sauf votre honneur, de elbow. 



^ 



56 SHAKESPEARE [act 

Katherine. Ainsi dis-je; de elbow, de nick, et de sin. Com- 
ment appelez-vous le pied et la robe? 

Alice. De foot, madame; et de coun. 

Katherine. De foot et de coun! O Seigneur Dieu! ce sont 
mots de son mauvais, corruptible, gros, et impudique, et non 
pour les dames d'honneur d'user: je ne voudrais prononcer 
ces mots devant les seigneurs de France pour tout le monde. 
Foh! le foot et le coun! Neanmoins, je reciterai une autre 
fois ma le^on ensemble: de hand, de fingres, de nails, de arm, 
de elbow, de nick, de sin, de foot, de coun. 10 

Alice. Excellent, madame! 

Katherine. C'est assez pour une fois: allons-nous a diner. 

[Exeunt. 

Scene V. The Same. 

Enter the King of France, the Dauphin, the Duke of 
Bourbon, the Constable of France, and others. 

French King. 'Tis certain he hath pass'd the river Somme. 

Constable. And if he be not fought withal, my lord. 
Let us not live in France; let us quit all, 15 

And give our vineyards to a barbarous people. 

Dauphin. O Dieu vivant!^ shall a few sprays of us," 
The emptying of our fathers' luxury. 
Our scions," put in wild and savage stock. 
Spirt ^ up so suddenly into the clouds, 20 

And overlook their grafters.?" 

Bourbon. Normans, but bastard Normans, Norman bas- 
tards! 
Mort de ma vie ! ^ if they march along 

Unfought withal, but I will sell my dukedom, 25 

To buy a slobbery ^ and a dirty farm 
In that nook-shotten" isle of Albion.^ 

* living God! 2 Grow. ^ Death of my life. 

^ Wet. ^ England. 



SCENE v.] HENRY THE FIFTH 57 

Constable. Dieu de batailles ! ^ where have they this mettle ? 
Is not their climate foggy, raw, and dull. 
On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale, 
Killing their fruit with frowns? Can sodden water, 
A drench for sur-rein'd jades,^ their barley broth, 5 

Decoct^ their cold blood to such valiant heat? 
And shall our quick blood, spirited with wine, 
Seem frosty ? O, for honor of our land. 
Let us not hang like roping^ icicles 

Upon our houses' thatch,^ whiles a more frosty people 10 
Sweat drops of gallant youth in our rich fields! 
Poor we may call them in their native lords. 

Dauphin. By faith and honor. 
Our madams mock at us, and plainly say 
Our mettle is bred out. 15 

Bourbon. They bid us to the English dancing-schools. 
And teach lavoltas" high and swift corantos;" 
Saying our grace is only in our heels. 
And that we are most lofty runaways. 

French King. Where is Montjoy the herald? speed him 
hence: 21 

Let him greet England with our sharp defiance. — 
Up, princes! and, with spirit of honor edg'd 
More sharper than your swords, hie to the field: 
Charles Delabreth, high constable® of France; 25 

You Dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and of Berri, 
Alen9on, Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy; 
Jaques Chatillon, Rambures, Vaudemont, 
Beaumont, Grandpre, Roussi, and Fauconberg, 
Foix, Lestrale, Bouciqualt, and Charolois; 30 

High dukes, great princes, barons, lords, and knights, 

^ God of battles. 2' Over-ridden horses. 

^ Boil, or warm. ■* Long, rope-like. 

^ A roof of straw. ® The commander-in-chief of the army. 



58 SHAKESPEARE [act 

For your great seats'^ now quit you " of great shames. 

Bar Harry England, that sweeps through our land 

With pennons^ painted in the blood of Harfleur: 

Rush on his host, as doth the melted snow 

Upon the valleys, whose low vassal seat 5 

The Alps doth spit and void his rheum upon: 

Go down upon him, — you have power enough, — 

And in a captive chariot into Rouen 

Bring him our prisoner. 

Constable. This becomes the great. 10 

Sorry am I his numbers are so few. 
His soldiers sick and famish'd in their march. 
For I am sure, when he shall see our army. 
He'll drop his heart into the sink of fear. 
And for achievement offer us his ransom. 15 

French King. Therefore, lord constable, haste on Montjoy, 
And let him say to England that we send 
To know what willing ransom he will give. — 
Prince Dauphin, you shall stay with us in Rouen. 

Dauphin. Not so, I do beseech your majesty. 20 

French King. Be patient, for you shall remain with us. — 
Now forth, lord constable and princes all. 
And quickly bring us word of England's fall. [Exeunt. 

Scene VI. The English Camp in Picardy. 

Enter Gower and Fluellen, meeting. 

Gower. How now. Captain Fluellen! come you from the 
b ridge .f* 25 

Fluellen. I assure you, there is very excellent services 
committed at the pridge. 

Gower. Is the Duke of Exeter safe } 

^ Pennants. 



SCENE VI.] HENRY THE FIFTH . 59 

Fluellen. The Duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as Aga- 
memnon;" and a man that I love and honor with my soul, 
and my heart, and my duty, and my Hfe, and my living, and 
my uttermost power: he is not — Got pe praised and plessed ! — 
any hurt in the world; but keeps the pridge most valiantly, 
with excellent discipline. There is an aunchient there at the 
pridge, I think in my very conscience he is as valiant a man 
as Mark Antony ;"" and he is a man of no estimation in the 
world; but I did see him do as gallant service. 

Gower. What do you call him.? 10 

Fluellen. He is called Aunchient Pistol. 

Gower. I know him not. 

Enter Pistol. 

Fluellen. Here is the man. 

Pistol. Captain, I thee beseech to do me favors: 
The Duke of Exeter doth love thee well. 15 

Fluellen. Ay, I praise Got; and I have merited some love 
at his hands. 

Pistol. Bardolph, a soldier, firm and sound of heart, 
And of buxom valor, hath, by cruel fate. 

And giddy Fortune's furious fickle wheel, 20 

That goddess blind, 
That stands upon the rolling restless stone — 

Fluellen. Py your patience, Aunchient Pistol. Fortune is 
painted plind, with a muffler afore her eyes, to signify to you 
that Fortune is plind; and she is painted also with a wheel, 
to signify to you, which is the moral of it, that she is turning, 
and inconstant, and mutability, and variation: and her foot, 
look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone, which rolls, and 
rolls, and rolls. In good truth, the poet makes a most ex- 
cellent description of it: Fortune is an excellent moral. 30 

Pistol. Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him; 



6o SHAKESPEARE [act in., 

For he hath stolen a pax/ and hanged must a' be: 

A damned death! 

Let gallows gape for dog; let man go free 

And let not hemp his windpipe suffocate: 

But Exeter hath given the doom of death 

For pax of little price. 

Therefore, go speak: the duke will hear thy voice; 

And let not Bardolph's vital thread be cut 

With edge of penny cord and vile reproach : 

Speak, captain, for his life, and I will thee requite. lo 

Fluellen. Aunchient Pistol, I do partly understand your 
meaning. 

Pistol. Why then, rejoice therefore. 

Fluellen. Certainly, aunchient, it is not a thing to rejoice 
at; for if, look you, he were my prother, I would desire the 
duke to use his goot pleasure, and put him to execution; for 
discipline ought to pe used. 17 

Pistol. Die and be damn'd ! and figo ^ for thy friendship ! 

Fluellen. It is well. 

Pistol. The iig of Spain! [Exit, 

Fluellen. Very goot. 

Gower. Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal; I re- 
member him now; a cutpurse.^ 

Fluellen. V\\ assure you, a' uttered as prave words at the 
pridge as you shall see in a summer's day. But it is very 
well; what he has spoke to me, that is well, I warrant you, 
when time is serve. 27 

Gower. Why, 'tis a gull,^ a fool, a rogue, that now and then 
goes to the wars, to grace himself at his return into London 
under the form of a soldier. And such fellows are perfect 
in the great commanders' names: and they will learn you by 

^ Probably a pyx, a costly box in which the consecrated wafer used in 
Mass is kept. 

2 Spanish for "fig." ^ Pickpocket. ^ One who is easily fooled. 



SCENE VI.] HENRY THE FIFTH 6l 

rote where services were done; at such and such a sconce/ 
at such a breach, at such a convoy;^ who came off bravely, 
who was shot, who disgraced, what terms the enemy stood 
on; and this they con^ perfectly in the phrase of war, which 
they trick up with new-tuned oaths: and what a beard of the 
general's cut and a horrid suit of the camp will do among 
foaming bottles and ale-washed wits, is wonderful to be 
thought on. But you must learn to know such slanders of 
the age, or else you may be marvelously mistook. 9 

Fluellen. I tell you what. Captain Gower; I do perceive 
he is not the man that he would gladly make show to the 
world he is: if I find a hole in his coat, I will tell him my 
mind. [Drum heard.] Hark you, the king is coming, and 
I must speak with him from the pridge. 

Drum and colors. Enter King Henry, Gloucester, 

and Soldiers. 

Got pless your majesty! 15 

King Henry. How now, Fluellen! camest thou from the 

bridge.? 

Fluellen. Ay, so please your majesty. The Duke of Exeter 

has very gallantly maintained the pridge: the French is gone 

off, look you: and there is gallant and most prave passages; 

marry, th' athversary was have possession of the pridge; but 

he is enforced to retire, and the Duke of Exeter is master of 

the pridge: I can tell your majesty, the duke is a prave man. 

King Henry. What men have you lost, Fluellen? 24 

Fluellen. The perdition of th' athversary hath peen very 

great, reasonable great: marry, for my part, I think the duke 

hath lost never a man, but one that is like to pe executed for 

robbing a church, one Bardolph, if your majesty know the 

^ Fortification. 

2 An escort of soldiers. Also that which is escorted or protected. 

^ Commit to memory. 



62 SHAKESPEARE [act iii. 

man: his face is all bubukles,^ and whelks,^ and knobs,^ and 
flames o' fire: and his lips plows at his nose, and it is like 
a coal of fire, sometimes plue and sometimes red; but his 
nose is executed, and his fire's out. 

King Henry. We would have all such offenders so cut off": 
and we give express charge, that in our marches through the 
country, there be nothing compelled from the villages, noth- 
ing taken but paid for, none of the French upbraided or 
abused in disdainful language; for when lenity and cruelty 
play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the soonest 
winner. 

Tucket.^ Enter Montjoy. 

Montjoy. You know me by my habit.^ 

King Henry. Well then, I know thee: what shall I know 
of thee .? 

Montjoy. My master's mind. 15 

King Henry. Unfold it. 

Montjoy. Thus says my king: Say thou to Harry of Eng- 
land: Though we seemed dead, we did but sleep: advantage 
is a better soldier than rashness. Tell him we could have 
rebuked him at Harfleur, but that we thought not good to 
bruise an injury till it were full ripe: now we speak upon our 
cue, and our voice is imperial. England shall repent his 
folly, see his weakness, and admire our suff^erance. Bid him 
therefore consider of his ransom; which must proportion the 
losses we have borne, the subjects we have lost, the disgrace 
we have digested; which in weight to re-answer, his petti- 
ness would bow under. For our losses, his exchequer^ is too 
poor; for the eff"usion of our blood, the muster of his king- 
dom too faint a number; and for our disgrace, his own per- 
son, kneeling at our feet, but a weak and worthless satisfac- 

^ Red swellings. 2 Small pimples. ^ Hard lumps. 

^ Flourish of trumpets. ^ His costume as herald. ^ Treasury. 



I 



r 



SCENE VI.] HENRY THE FIFTH 63 

tion. To this add defiance: and tell him, for conclusion, 
he hath betrayed his followers, whose condemnation is pro- 
nounced. So far my king and master; so much my office. 
King Henry. What is thy name .? I know thy quality, 
Montjoy. Montjoy. 5 

King Henry. Thou dost thy office fairly. Turn thee back. 
And tell thy king I do not seek him now; 
But could be willing to march on to Calais 
Without impeachment; for, to say the sooth,^ 
Though 'tis no wisdom to confess so much 10 

Unto an enemy of craft and vantage, 
My people are with sickness much enfeebled, 
My numbers lessen'd, and those few I have 
Almost no better than so many French; 
Who when they were in health, I tell thee, herald, 15 

I thought upon one pair of English legs 
Did march three Frenchmen. — Yet, forgive me, God, 
That I do brag thus! — This your air of France 
Hath blown that vice in me; I must repent. 
Go therefore, tell thy master here I am: 20 

My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk. 
My army but a weak and sickly guard; 
Yet, God before, tell him we will come on. 
Though France himself and such another neighbor 
Stand in our way. There's for thy labor, Montjoy. 25 

Go, bid thy master well advise himself: 
If we may pass, we will; if we be hinder'd. 
We shall your tawny ^ ground with your red blood 
Discolor: and so, Montjoy, fare you well. 
The sum of all our answer is but this: 30 

We would not seek a battle, as we are. 
Nor, as we are, we say we will not shun it: 
So tell your master. 

^ Truth. 2 Yellowish brown. 



64 SHAKESPEARE [act iii. 

Montjoy. I shall deliver so. Thanks to your highness. 

[Exi 

Gloucester. I hope they will not come upon us now. 

King Henry. We are in God's hand, brother, not in theirs. 
March to the bridge; it now draws toward night. 
Beyond the river we'll encamp ourselves, 5 

And on to-morrow bid them march away. [Exeunt, 

Scene VII. The French Camp, near Agincourt. 

Enter the Constable of France, the Lord Rambures, 
Orleans, Dauphin, with others. 

Constable. Tut ! I have the best armor of the world. Would 
it were day! 

Orleans. You have an excellent armor; but let my horse 
have his due. 10 

Constable. It is the best horse of Europe. 

Orleans. Will it never be morning .? 

Dauphin. My Lord of Orleans, and my lord high con- 
stable, you talk of horse and armor? 

Orleans. You are as well provided of both as any prince 
in the world. 16 

Dauphin. What a long night is this! — I will not change 
my horse with any that treads but on four pasterns. Ca,^ 
ha! he bounds from the earth, as if his entrails were hairs; le 
cheval volant,^ the Pegasus," chez les narines de feu!^ When 
I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the 
earth sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his hoof 
is more musical than the pipe of Hermes." 

Orleans. He's of the color of the nutmeg. 24 

Dauphin. And of the heat of the ginger. It is a beast for 
Perseus:" he is pure air and fire; and the dull elements of 

^ So. 2 'Phe flying horse. ^ With fiery nostrils. 



1 



SCENE VII.] HENRY THE FIFTH 65 

earth and water never appear in him, but only in patient 
stillness while his rider mounts him: he is indeed a horse; and 
all other jades you may call beasts. 

Constable. Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and ex- 
cellent horse. 5 

Dauphin. It is the prince of palfreys; ^ his neigh is like the 
bidding of a monarch, and his countenance enforces homage. 

Orlea7is. No more, cousin. 

Dauphin. Nay, the man hath no wit that cannot, from the 
rising of the lark to the lodging of the lamb, vary deserved 
praise on my palfrey: it is a theme as fluent as the sea: turn 
the sands into eloquent tongues, and my horse is argument 
for them all. 'Tis a subject for a sovereign to reason on, 
and for a sovereign's sovereign to ride on; and for the world, 
familiar to us and unknown, to lay apart their particular 
functions and wonder at him. I once writ a sonnet in his 
praise and began thus: * Wonder of nature,' — 17 

Orleans. I have heard a sonnet begin so to one's mistress. 

Rambures. My lord constable, the armor that I saw in 
your tent to-night, are those stars or suns upon it? 

Constable. Stars, my lord. 

Dauphin. Some of them will fall to-morrow, I hope. 

Constable. And yet my sky shall not want. 

Dauphin. That may be, for you bear a many superflu- 
ously, and 'twere more honor some were away. 25 

Constable. Even as your horse bears your praises: who 
would trot as well, were some of your brags dismounted. 

Dauphin. Would I were able to load him with his desert! 
— Will it never be day? I will trot to-morrow a mile, and 
my way shall be paved with English faces. 30 

Constable. I will not say so, for fear I should be faced out 
of my way: but I would it were morning; for I would fain 
be about the ears of the English. 

^ Saddle horses for road use. 



I 



66 SHAKESPEARE [actiii.*' 

Ramhures. Who will go to hazard^ with me for twenty 
prisoners? 

Constable. You must first go yourself to hazard, ere you 
have them. 

Dauphin. 'Tis midnight; Fll go arm myself. [Exit. 

Orleans. The Dauphin longs for morning. 6 

Ramhures. He longs to eat the English. 

Constable. I think he will eat all he kills. 

Orleans. By the white hand of my lady, he's a gallant 
prince. lo 

Constable. Swear by her foot, that she may tread out the 
oath. 

Orleans. He is simply the most active gentleman of France. 

Constable. Doing is activity; and he will still be doing. 

Orleans. He never did harm, that I heard of. 15 

Constable. Nor will do none to-morrow: he will keep that 
good name still. 

Orleans. I know him to be valiant. 

Constable. I was told that by one that knows him better 
than you. 20 

Orleans. What's he? 

Constable. Marry, he told me so himself; and he said he 
cared not who knew it. 

Orleans. He needs not; it is no hidden virtue in him. 

Constable. By my faith, sir, but it is; never any body saw 
it but his lackey:^ 'tis a hooded valor, and when it appears 
it will bate.^ 

Orleans. Ill will never said well. 

Constable. I will cap that proverb with * There is flattery 
in friendship.' 30 

Orleans. And I will take up that with *Give the devil his 
due.' 

Constable. Well placed: there stands your friend for the 
^ A servant. 2 Flutter, i. e., weaken. 



SCENE VII.] HENRY THE FIFTH 6j 

devil: have at the very eye of that proverb with 'A pox of 

the devil.' 

Orleans. You are the better at proverbs, by how much 

'A fool's bolt is soon shot.' 

Constable. You have shot over. . 5 

Orleans. 'Tis not the first time you were overshot. 

Enter a Messenger. 

Messenger. My lord high constable, the English lie within 
fifteen hundred paces of your tents. 

Constable. Who hath measured the ground.? 

Messenger. The Lord Grandpre. 10 

Constable. A valiant and most expert gentleman. — Would 
it were day! — Alas, poor Harry of England! he longs not 
for the dawning as we do. 

Orleans. What a wretched and peevish fellow is this king 
of England, to mope with his fat-brained followers so far 
out of his knowledge! 16 

Constable. If the English had any apprehension, they 
would run away. 

Orleans. That they lack; for if their heads had any intellec- 
tual armor, they could never wear such heavy head-pieces. 

Rambures. That island of England breeds very valiant 
creatures; their mastiffs are of unmatchable courage. 22 

Orleans. Foolish curs, that run winking into the mouth of 
a Russian bear and have their heads crushed like rotten 
apples! You may as well say, that's a valiant flea that dare 
eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion. 

Constable. Just, just; and the men do sympathize with the 
mastiffs in robustious ^ and rough coming on, leaving their 
wits with their wives: and then give them great meals of 
beef and iron and steel, they will eat like wolves and fight 
like devils. 31 

^ Vigorous. 



68 SHAKESPEARE [act iv. 

Orleans. Ay, but these English are shrewdly out of beef. 

Constable. Then shall we find to-morrow they have only 
stomachs to eat, and none to fight. Now is it time to arm: 
come, shall we about it? 

Orleans. It is now two o'clock: but, let me see, by ten 5 %\ 
We shall have each a hundred Englishmen. [Exeunt. 

ACT IV 

PROLOGUE 

Enter Chorus. 

Chorus. Now entertain conjecture of a time** 
When creeping murmur and the poring dark" 
Fills the wide vessel of the universe. 

From camp to camp through the foul womb of night 10 

The hum of either army stilly sounds, 
That the fix'd sentinels almost receive 
The secret whispers of each other's watch. 
Fire answers fire, and through their paly flames 
Each battle^ sees the other's umber'd^ face: 15 

Steed threatens steed, in high and boastful neighs 
Piercing the night's dull ear; and from the tents 
The armorers, accomplishing^ the knights. 
With busy hammers closing rivets up,** 

Give dreadful note of preparation: 20 

The country cocks do crow, the clocks do tolL 
And the third hour of drowsy morning name. 
Proud of their numbers and secure in soul. 
The confident and over-lusty ^ French 

Do the low-rated^ English play at dice;** 25 

And chide the cripple tardy-gaited^ night, 

^ Battle line. 2 Shadowed. ^ Equipping. 

^ Over active. ^ Little respected, ^ Slow moving. 



PROLOGUE.] HENRY THE FIFTH 69 

Who, like a foul and ugly witch, doth limp 

So tediously away. The poor condemned English, 

Like sacrifices, by their watchful fires 

Sit patiently, and inly ruminate^ 

The morning's danger; and their gesture sad, 5 

Investing lank-lean cheeks and war-worn coats, 

Presenteth them unto the gazing moon 

So many horrid ghosts. O now, who will behold 

The royal captain of this ruin'd band 

Walking from watch to watch, from tent to tent, 10 

Let him cry * Praise and glory on his head!' 

For forth he goes and visits all his host. 

Bids them good morrow with a modest smile. 

And calls them brothers, friends, and countrymen. 

Upon his royal face there is no note 15 

How dread an army hath enrounded^ him; 

Nor doth he dedicate^ one jot of color 

Unto the weary and all-watched night. 

But freshly looks, and over-bears attaint ^ 

With cheerful semblance^ and sweet majesty; 20 

That every wretch, pining and pale before, 

Beholding him, plucks comfort from his looks: 

A largess^ universal like the sun 

His liberal eye doth give to every one. 

Thawing cold fear. Then, mean and gentle all, 25 

Behold, as may unworthiness define, 

A little touch of Harry in the night. 

And so our scene must to the battle fly; 

Where — O for pity! — we shall much disgrace 

With four or five most vile and ragged foils,^ 30 

Right ill-dispos'd in brawl ridiculous. 



^ Think about. 


2 Surrounded. 


3 Give up. 


^ Harmful influence. 


^ Appearance. 
"^ Fencing swords. 


« A gift. 






70 SHAKESPEARE [act 

The name of Agincourt. Yet sit and see, 

Minding true things by what their mockeries ^ be. [Exit. 

Scene I. The English Camp at Agincourt. 

Enter King Henry, Bedford, and Gloucester. 

King Henry. Gloucester, ^tis true that we are in great 
danger; 
The greater therefore should our courage be. — 5 

Good morrow, brother Bedford. — God Almighty! 
There is some soul of goodness in things evil, 
Would men observingly distil it out; 
For our bad neighbor makes us early stirrers. 
Which is both healthful and good husbandry: 10 

Besides, they are our outward consciences. 
And preachers to us all, admonishing 
That we should dress us fairly for our end. 
Thus may we gather honey from the weed, 
And make a moral of the devil himself. 15 

Enter Erpingham. 

Good morrow, old Sir Thomas Erpingham: 
A good soft pillow for that good white head 
Were better than a churlish turf of France. 

Erpingham. Not so, my liege : this lodging likes " me better, 
Since I may say, now lie I like a king. 20 

King Henry. 'Tis good for men to love their present pains 
Upon example;" so the spirit is eas'd: 
And when the mind is quicken'd, out of doubt. 
The organs, thoug;h defunct and dead before, 
Break up their drowsy grave and newly move, 25 

With casted slough^ and fresh legerity.'* 

^ Unworthy imitations. 2 Pleases. 

^ The cast off skin of a serpent. ^ Nimbleness. 



SCENE I.] HENRY THE FIFTH 71 

Lend me thy cloak, Sir Thomas. — Brothers both, 
Commend me to the princes in our camp; 
Do my good morrow to them, and anonj 
Desire^ them all to my pavilion. 

Gloucester. We shall, my liege. 5 

Erpingham. Shall I attend your grace? 

King Henry. No, my good knight; 

Go with my brothers to my lords of England : 
I and my bosom ^ must debate a while. 

And then I would no other company. 10 

Erpingham. The Lord in heaven bless thee, noble Harry! 

[Exeunt all but King. 

King Henry. God-a-mercy, old heart! thou speak'st cheer- 
fully. 

Enter Pistol. 

Pistol. Qui va la?^ 

King Henry. A friend. ' 15 

Pistol. Discuss^ unto me; art thou officer .r* 
Or art thou base, common, and popular? 

King Henry. I am a gentleman*of a company. 

Pistol. Trail'st thou the puissant pike? 

King Henry. Even so. What are you? 20 

Pistol. As good a gentleman as the emperor. 

King Henry. Then you are a better than the king. 

Pistol. The king's a bawcock, and a heart of gold, 
A lad of life, an imp of fame; 

Of parents good, of fist most valiant. 25 

I kiss his dirty shoe, and from heart-strings 
I love the lovely bully. What is thy name? 

King Henry. Harry le Roy.^ 

^ At once. 2 Request. ^ Heart. 

^ Who goes there.'' ^ Speak. . ^ Harry the King. 



72 SHAKESPEARE [activ? 

Pistol. Le Roy! a Cornish name: art thou of Cornish 
crew ? 

King Henry. No, I am a Welshman.^ 

Pistol. Knows't thou Fluellen? 

King Henry. Yes. 5 

Pistol. Tell him, I'll knock his leek" about his pate 
Upon Saint Davy's day. 

King Henry. Do not you wear your dagger in your cap 
that day, lest he knock that about yours. 

Pistol. Art thou his friend } 10 

King Henry. And his kinsman too. 

Pistol. The figo for thee, then ! 

King Henry. I thank you: God be with you! 

Pistol. My name is Pistol call'd. [Exit. 

King Henry. It sorts well with your fierceness. 15 

Enter Fluellen amd Gower. 

Gozver. Captain Fluellen! 

Fluellen. So! Speak lower. It is the greatest admiration 
in the universal world, when the true and aunchient pre- 
rogatifes and laws of the wars is not kept. If you would 
take the pains but to examine the wars of Pompey the Great,** 
you shall find, I warrant you, that there is no tiddle taddle nor 
pibble pabble in Pompey's camp; I warrant you, you shall 
find the ceremonies of the wars, and the cares of it, and the 
forms of it, and the sobriety of it, and the modesty of it, to pe 
otherwise. 25 

Gower. Why, the enemy is loud; you hear him all night. 

Fluellen. If the enemy is an ass and a fool and a prating 
coxcomb, is it meet, think you, that we should also, look you, 
pe an ass and a fool and a prating coxcomb.? in your own 
conscience, now? 30 

Gower. I will speak lower. 



SCENE I.] HENRY THE FIFTH 73 

Fluellen. I pray you and peseech you that you will. 

[Exeufit Gozver and Fluellen. 
King Henry. Though it appear a little out of fashion, 
There is much care and valor in this Welshman. 

Enter Bates, Court, and Williams. 

Court. Brother John Bates, is not that the morning which 
breaks yonder? 5 

Bates. I think it be: but we have no great cause to desire 
the approach of day. 

Williams. We see yonder the beginning of the day, but T 
think we shall never see the end of it. — Who goes there.? 

King Henry. A friend. 10 

Williams. Under what captain serve you ^. 

King Henry. Under Sir Thomas Erpingham. 

Williams. A good old commander and a most kind gen- 
tleman: I pray you, what thinks he of our estate? 

King Henry. Even as men wrecked upon a sand, that look 
to be washed off the next tide. 16 

Bates. He hath not told his thought to the king? 

King Henry. No; nor it is not meet he should. For, 
though I speak it to you, I think the king is but a man, as I 
am: the violet smells to him as it doth to me; the element 
shows to him as it doth to me; all his senses have but hu- 
man conditions: his ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he 
appears but a man; and though his affections are higher 
mounted than ours, yet, when they stoop, they stoop with the 
like wing. Therefore when he sees reason of fears, as we 
do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish as ours are: 
yet, in reason, no man should possess him with any appear- 
ance of fear, lest he, by showing it, should dishearten his 
army. 29 

Bates. He may show what outward courage he will; but 



74 SHAKESPEARE [act iv. 

I believe, as cold a night as \ is, he could wish himself in 
Thames up to the neck; and so I would he were, and I by 
him, at all adventures, so we were quit here. 

King Henry. By my troth, I will speak my conscience of 
the king: I think he would not wish himself any where but 
where he is. 6 

Bates. Then I would he were here alone; so should he be 
sure to be ransomed, and a many poor men's lives saved. 

King Henry. I dare say you love him not so ill, to wish 
him here alone, howsoever you speak this to feel other men's 
minds. Methinks I could not die any where so contented 
as in the king's company, his cause being just and his quar- 
rel honorable. 13 

Williams. That's more than we know. 

Bates. Ay, or more than we should seek after; for we 
know enough, if we know we are the king's subjects. If his 
cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes the crime 
of it out of us. 18 

Williams. But if the cause be not good, the king himself 
hath a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and 
arms and heads, chopped off in a battle, shall join together 
at the latter day and cry all 'We died at such a place;' some 
swearing, some crying for a surgeon, some upon their wives 
left poor behind them, some upon the debts they owe, some 
upon their children rawly left. I am afeard there are few 
die well that die in a battle; for how can they charitably 
dispose of any thing, when blood is their argument.? Now, 
if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for 
the king that led them to it; who to disobey were against 
all proportion of subjection. 30 

King Henry. So, if a son that is by his father sent about 
merchandise do sinfully miscarry upon the sea, the imputa- 
tion ^ of his wickedness, by your rule, should be imposed upon 

^ Reproach. 



SCENE I.] HENRY THE FIFTH 75 

his father that sent him; or if a servant, under his master's 
command transporting a sum of money, be assailed by rob- 
bers and die in many irreconciled iniquities," you may call 
the' business of the master the author of the servant's dam- 
nation. But this is not so: the king is not bound to answer 
the particular endings of his soldiers, the father of his son, 
nor the master of his servant; for they purpose not their 
death when they purpose their services. Besides, there is 
no king, be his cause never so spotless, if it come to the ar- 
bitrement ^ of swords, can try it out with all unspotted sol- 
diers. Some peradventure have on them the guilt of pre- 
meditated and contrived murder; some, of beguiling virgins 
with the broken seals of perjury; some, making the wars 
their bulwark, that have before gored the gentle bosom of 
peace with pillage and robbery. Now, if these men have de- 
feated the law and outrun native punishment, though they 
can outstrip men, they have no wings to fly from God: war 
is His beadle,^ war is His vengeance; so that here men are 
punished for before-breach ^ of the king's laws in now the 
king's quarrel: where they feared the death, they have borne 
life away; and where they would be safe, they perish: then 
if they die unprovided, no more is the king guilty of their 
damnation than he was before guilty of those impieties for 
the which they are now visited. Every subject's duty is the 
king's; but every subject's soul is his own. Therefore should 
every soldier in the wars do as every sick man in his bed, 
wash every mote out of his conscience: and dying so, death 
is to him advantage; or not dying, the time was blessedly 
lost wherein such preparation was gained: and in him that 
escapes, it were not sin to think that, making God so free an 
offer. He let him outlive that day to see His greatness and 
to teach others how they should prepare. 

^ Decision. 2 An officer who summoned people to court. 

^ Earlier violation. 



'J^ SHAKESPEARE [act iv. 

Williams. 'Tis certain, every man that dies ill, the ill upon 
his own head; the king is not to answer it. 

Bates. I do not desire he should answer for me; and yet 
I determine to fight lustily for him. ♦ 

King Henry. I myself heard the king say he would not be 
ransomed. 6 

Williams. Ay, he said so, to make us fight cheerfully; but 
when our throats are cut, he may be ransomed, and we ne'er 
the wiser. 

King Henry. If I live to see it, I will never trust his word 
after. 1 1 

Williams. You pay him then! That's a perilous shot out 
of an elder-gun,^ that a poor and private displeasure can do 
against a monarch. You may as well go about to turn the 
sun to ice with fanning in his face with a peacock's feather. 
You'll never trust his word after! come, 'tis a foolish 
saying. 

King Henry. Your reproof is something too round: I 
should be angry with you, if the time were convenient. 

Williams. Let it be a quarrel between us, if you live. 20 

King Henry. I embrace it. 

Williams. How shall I know thee again.? 

King Henry. Give me any gage ^ of thine, and I will wear 
it in my bonnet:^ then, if ever thou darest acknowledge it, 
I will make it my quarrel. 25 

Williams. Here's my glove: give me another of thine. 

King Henry. There. 

Williams. This will I also wear in my cap: if ever thou 
come to me and say, after to-morrow, *This is my glove,' by 
this hand, I will take thee a box on the ear. 30 

King Henry. If ever I live to see it, I will challenge it. 

Williams. Thou darest as well be hanged. 

^ A pop-gun made of elder. 

2 A glove or some other light article given as a challenge. ^ Cap. 



SCENE I.] HENRY THE FIFTH 77 

King Henry. Well, I will do it, though I take thee in the 
king's company. 

Williams. Keep thy word: fare thee well. 

Bates. Be friends, you English fools, be friends: we have 
French quarrels enow, if you could tell how to reckon. 5 

King Henry. Indeed, the French may lay twenty French 
crowns to one, they will beat us; for they bear them on their 
shoulders: but it is no English treason to cut French crowns, 
and to-morrow the king himself will be a clipper. 

[Exeunt Soldiers. 
Upon the king! let us our lives, our souls, 10 

Our debts, our careful wives. 
Our children, and our sins lay on the king! 
We must bear" all. O hard condition. 
Twin-born with greatness, subject to the breath 
Of every fool, whose sense no more can feel 15 

But his own wringing!^ What infinite heart's-ease 
Must kings neglect, that private men enjoy! 
And what have kings, that privates have not too, 
Save ceremony, save general ceremony? 

And what art thou, thou idol ceremony? 20 

What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more 
Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers? 
What are thy rents? what are thy comings-in? 
O ceremony, show me but thy worth! 

What is thy soul of adoration? 25 

Art thou aught else but place, degree, and form. 
Creating awe and fear in other men ? 
Wherein thou art less happy being fear'd 
Than they in fearing. 

What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage sweet, 30 

But poison'd flattery? O, be sick, great greatness, 
And bid thy ceremony give thee cure! 

1 Pain. 



78 SHAKESPEARE [act iv! 

Think'st thou the fiery fever will go out 

With titles blown from adulation?^ 

Will it give place to flexure^ and low bending? 

Canst thou, when thou command'st the beggar's knee, 

Command the health of it? No, thou proud dream, 5 

That play'st so subtly with a king's repose; 

I am a king that find thee, and I know 

'Tis not the balm, the sceptre, and the ball. 

The sword, the mace, the crown imperial. 

The intertissued robe of gold and pearl," 10 

The farced ^ title running fore the king, 

The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp 

That beats upon the high shore of this world; 

No, not all these, thrice-gorgeous ceremony. 

Not all these, laid in bed majestical, 15 

Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave. 

Who with a body fill'd and vacant mind 

Gets him to rest, cramm'd with distressful bread. 

Never sees horrid night, the child of hell. 

But, like a lackey, from the rise to set 20 

Sweats in the eye of Phoebus, and all night 

Sleeps in Elysium;'^ next day after dawn, 

Doth rise and help Hyperion ^ to his horse. 

And follows so the ever-running year, 

With profitable labor, to his grave: 25 

And, but for ceremony, such a wretch. 

Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep, 

Had the fore-hand and vantage^ of a king. 

The slave, a member of the country's peace. 

Enjoys it, but in gross brain little wots^ 30 

What watch the king keeps to maintain the peace. 

Whose hours the peasant best advantages. 

^Flattery. 2 Obsequious bowing. ^Pompous. 

^ Superiority. ^ Knows, 



SCENE I.] HENRY THE FIFTH 79 

Enter Erpingham. 

Erpingham. My lord, your nobles, jealous of your absence, 
Seek through your camp to find you. 

King Henry. Good old knight, 

Collect them all together at my tent: 
I'll be before thee. 5 

Erpingham. I shall do 't, my lord\ [Exit. 

King Henry. O God of battles! steel my soldiers' 
hearts; 
Possess them not with fear; take from them now 
The sense of reckoning, if the opposed numbers lo 

Pluck their hearts from them. Not to-day, O Lord, 
O, not to-day, think not upon the fault 
My father made in compassing the crown!" 
I Richard's body have interred new, 

And on it have bestow'd more contrite^ tears 15 

Than from it issued forced drops of blood. 
Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay, 
Who twice a-day their wither'd hands hold up 
Toward heaven, to pardon blood; and I have built 
Two chantries,^ where the sad and solemn priests 20 

Sing still for Richard's soul. More will I do; 
Though all that I can do is nothing worth, 
Since that my penitence comes after all. 
Imploring pardon. 

Enter Gloucester. 

Gloucester. My liege! 25 

King Henry. My brother Gloucester's voice? Ay; 

I know thy errand, I will go with thee: 

The day, my friends, and all things stay for me. [Exeunt, 

1 Repentant. 2 Chapels. 



8o SHAKESPEARE [act iv. 

Scene II. The French Camp. 

Enter the Dauphin, Orleans, Rambures, and others. 

Orleans. The sun doth gild our armor: up, my lords! 
Dauphin. Montez a cheval!^ My horse! varlet! laquais!^ 
ha! 

Orleans. O brave spirit! 

Dauphin. Via! les eaux et la terre.^ 5 

Orleans. Rien puis? Fair et le feu/ 

Dauphin. Ciel,^ cousin Orleans. 

Enter Constable. 

Now, my lord constable! 

Constable. Hark, how our steeds for present service neigh! 

Dauphin. Mount them, and make incision** in their hides. 
That their hot blood may spin in English eyes, 1 1 

And dout^ them with superfluous courage, ha! 

Rambures. What, will you have them weep our horses' 
blood.? 
How shall we then behold their natural tears ? 15 

Enter Messenger. 

Messenger. The English are embattled, you French peers. 

Constable. To horse, you gallant princes! straight to horse! 
Do but behold yon poor and starved band. 
And your fair show shall suck away their souls. 
Leaving them but the shales^ and husks of men. 20 

There is not work enough for all our hands; 
Scarce blood enough in all their sickly veins 
To give each naked curtle-axe^ a stain, 

^ To horse! 2 Servants. ^ Go! The waters and the earth! 

* Nothing more? Air and fire. ^ Heaven. 

^ Put out. ^ Shells. ^ Cutlass. 



SCENE II.] HENRY THE FIETH 8l 

That our Ffench gallants shall to-day draw out. 

And sheathe for lack of sport: let us but blow on them, 

The vapor of our valor will o'erturn them. 

'Tis positive 'gainst all exceptions, lords. 

That our superfluous lackeys and our peasants, 5 

Who in unnecessary actions swarm 

About our squares of battle, were enow 

To purge this field of such a hilding ^ foe. 

Though we upon this mountain's basis by 

Took stand for idle speculation: lo 

But that our honors must not. What's to say? 

A very little little let us do, 

And all is done. Then let the trumpets sound 

The tucket sonance^ and the note to mount; 

For our approach shall so much dare^ the field 15 

That England shall couch down in fear and yield. 

Enter Grandpre. 

Grandpre. Why do you stay so long, my lords of France? 
Yon island carrions,"" desperate of their bones, 
Ill-favoredly become the morning field: 

Their ragged curtains poorly are let loose, 20 

And our air shakes them passing scornfully: 
Big Mars seems bankrupt in their beggar'd host, 
And faintly through a rusty beaver^ peeps: 
The horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks. 

With torch-staves^ in their hand; and their poor jades 25 
Lob down their heads, dropping the hides and hips, 
The gum down-roping from their pale-dead eyes, 
And in their pale dull mouths the gimmal bit^ 
Lies foul with chew'd grass, still and motionless; 

1 Splridess. ^ A flourish. ' Frighten. 

4 Armor protecting the lower part of the face. , , , • 

5 Sticks holding torches. ^ A bit made of mterlocked rmgs. 



82 SHAKESPEARE [act iv. 

And their executors, the knavish crows, • 

Fly o'er them, all impatient for their hour. 

Description cannot suit itself in words 

To demonstrate the life of such a battle. 

In life so lifeless as it shows itself. 5 

Constable. They have said their prayers, and they stay for 
death. 

Dauphin. Shall we go send them dinners and fresh suits. 
And give their fasting horses provender. 
And after fight with them? 10 

Constable. I stay but for my guidon:^ to the field! 
I will the banner from a trumpet take. 
And use it for my haste. Come, come, away! 
The sun is high, and we outwear the day. [Exeunt. 

Scene III. The English Camp. 

Enter the English Host; Gloucester, Bedford, Exeter, 
Erpingham, Salisbury, and Westmoreland. 

Gloucester. Where is the king? 15 

Bedford. The king is rode ^ to view their battle. 

Westmoreland. Of fighting men they have full threescore 
thousand. 

Exeter. There's five to one; besides, they all are fresh. 

Salisbury. God's arm strike with us! 'tis a fearful odds. 20 
God be wi' you, princes all; I'll to my charge: 
If we no more meet till we meet in heaven. 
Then, joyfully, my noble Lord of Bedford, 
My dear Lord Gloucester, and my good Lord Exeter, 
And my kind kinsman, warriors all, adieu! 25 

Bedford. Farewell, good Salisbury; and good luck go with 
thee! 

Exeter. Farewell, kind lord; fight valiantly to-day: 
^ A small flag. ^ Has ridden. 



SCENE III.] HENRY THE FIFTH 83 

And yet I do thee wrong to mind thee of it, 
For thou art fram'd of the firm truth of valor. 

[Exit Salisbury. 
Bedford. He is as full of valor as of kindness; 
Princely in both. 

Enter the King. 

Westmoreland. O that we now had here 5, 

But one ten thousand of those men in England 
That do no work to-day! 

King Henry. What's he that wishes so? 

My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin: 
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow ' 10 

To do our country loss; and if to live. 
The fewer men, the greater share of honor. 
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more. 
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold. 

Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;" 15 

It yearns ^ me not if men my garments wear; 
Such outward things dwell not in my desires: 
But if It be a sin to covet honor, 
I am the most offending soul alive. 

No, faith, my coz,^ wish not a man from England: 20 

God's peace! I would not lose so great an honor 
As one man more, methinks, would share from me 
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more! 
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host. 
That he which hath no stomach ^ to this fight, 25 

Let him depart; his passport shall be made, 
And crowns'^ for convoy^ put into his purse: 
We would not die in that man's company 
That fears his fellowship to die with us. 

^ Grieves. ^ Cousin, a title given to certain noblemen. 

^ Desire. ^ Gold pieces. ^ Conveyance, 



84 SHAKESPEARE [act iv. 

This day is call'd the feast of Crispian: " 

He that outHves this day, and comes safe home, 

Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd. 

And rouse him at the name of Crispian. 

He that shall live this day, and see old age, 5 

Will yearly on the vigil ^ feast his neighbors, 

And say * To-morrow is Saint Crispian:' 

Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars. 

And say *These wounds I had on Crispin's day/ 

Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, 10 

But he'll remember with advantages 

What feats he did that day: then shall our names, 

Familiar in his mouth as household words, — 

Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter, 

Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester, — 15 

Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd. 

This story shall the good man teach his son; 

And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by. 

From this day to the ending of the world. 

But we in it shall be remembered, 20 

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers: 

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me 

Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,^ 

This day shall gentle^ his condition: 

And gentlemen in England now a-bed 25 

Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here. 

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks 

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day. 

Enter Salisbury. 

Salisbury. My sovereign lord, bestow yourself with speed : 
The French are bravely in their battles^ set, 30 

^ Low in birth. 2 Ennoble. ^ Lines of battle. 



SCENE III.] HENRY THE FIFTH 85 

And will with all expedience ^ charge on us. 

King Henry. All things are ready, if our minds be so. 
Westmoreland. Perish the man whose mind is backward 

now! 
King Henry. Thou dost not wish more help from England, 
coz .? 6 

Westmoreland. God's will! my liege, would you and I alone. 
Without more help, could fight this royal battle! 

King Henry. Why, now thou hast unwish'd five thousand 
men, 10 

Which likes me better than to wish us one. — 
You know your places: God be with you all! 

Tucket. Enter Montjoy. 

Montjoy. Once more I come to know of thee, King Harry, 
If for thy ransom thou wilt now compound,^ 
Before thy most assured overthrow: 
For certainly thou art so near the gulf, 
Thou needs must be englutted.^ Besides, in mercy. 
The constable desires thee thou wilt mind ^ 
Thy followers of repentance; that their souls 
May make a peaceful and a sweet retire 20 

From ofF these fields, where, wretches, their poor bodies 
Must lie and fester. 

King Henry. Who hath sent thee now? 

Montjoy. The Constable of France. 

King Henry. I pray thee, bear my former answer back: 
Bid them achieve^ me, and then sell my bones. 
Good God! why should they mock poor fellows thus? 
The man that once did sell the lion's skin 
While the beast liv'd was kill'd with hunting him. 
A many of our bodies shall no doubt 30 

'^ Haste. 2 Come to agreement. ^ Swallowed down. 

^ Remind. ^ Gain, i. e., capture. 



86 SHAKESPEARE [act iv. "' 

Find native graves; upon the which, I trust, 

Shall witness live in brass " of this day's work; 

And those that leave their valiant bones in France, 

Dying like men, though buried in your dunghills, fl| 

They shall be fam'd : for there the sun shall greet them, 5 

And draw their honors reeking up to heaven, 

Leaving their earthly parts to choke your clime. 

The smell whereof shall breed a plague in France. 

Mark then abounding valor in our English, 

That, being dead, like to the bullet's grazing, 10 

Break out into a second course of mischief. 

Killing in relapse of mortality.'^ 

Let me speak proudly: tell the constable 

We are but warriors for the working-day; 

Our gayness and our gilt^ are all besmirch'd 15 

With rainy marching in the painful field; 

There's not a piece of feather in our host — 

Good argument, I hope, we will not fly — 

And time hath worn us into slovenry:^ 

But, by the mass, our hearts are in the trim; 20 

And my poor soldiers tell me, yet ere night 

They'll be in fresher robes, or they will pluck 

The gay new coats o'er the French soldiers' heads. 

And turn them out of service. If they do this, — 

As, if God please, they shall, — my ransom then 25 

Will soon be levied. Herald, save thou thy labor; 

Come thou no more for ransom, gentle herald: 

They shall have none, 1 swear, but these my joints; 

Which if they have as I will leave 'em them. 

Shall yield them little, tell the constable. 30 

Montjoy. I shall, King Harry. And so fare thee well: 
Thou never shalt hear herald any more. [Exit. 

King Henry. I fear thou'lt once more come again for ransom. 
^ Gilded armor and weapons. 2 Slovenliness. 



SCENE IV.] HENRY THE FIFTH 87 

Enter York. 

York. My lord, most humbly on my knee I beg 
The leading of the vaward.^ 

King Henry. Take it, brave York. — Now, soldiers, march 
away: ' 

And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day! [Exeunt. 

Scene IV. The Field of Battle. 

Alarum. Excursions."^ E^iter French Soldier, Pistol, and 

Boy. 

Pistol Yield, cur! 

French Soldier. Je pense que vous etes gentilhomme de 
bonne qualite.^ 

Pistol. Quality! Callino, castore me!" Art thou a gentle- 
man? what is thy name? discuss. 10 

French Soldier. O Seigneur Dieu!^ 

Pistol. O Signieur Dew should be a gentleman: 
Perpend^ my words, O Signieur Dew, and mark; 
O Signieur Dew, thou diest on point of fox," 
Except, O signieur, thou do give to me 15 

Egregious^ ransom. 

French Soldier. O, prenez misericorde! ayez pitie de moi!*^ 

Pistol. Moy shall not serve, I will have forty moys; 
Or I will fetch thy rim out at thy throat 
In drops of crimson blood. 20 

French Soldier. Est-il impossible d'echapper la force de 
ton bras?^ 

Pistol. Brass, cur! 

^ The vanguard. ~ Soldiers hurry on and ofF the scene. 

^ I think, that you are a gentleman of good quahty. 

^O Lord God! '" Weigh. ^ Extraordinary. 

'^ O take mercy! Have pity on me! 

^ Is it impossible to escape the force of thy arm.? 



88 SHAKESPEARE [act iv. 

Thou damned and luxurious mountain goat, 
Offer'st me brass? 

French Soldier. O pardonnez moi!^ 

Pistol. Say' St thou me so? is that a ton of moys? 
Come hither, boy: ask me this slave in French 5 

What is his name. 

Boy. Ecoutez: comment etes-vous appele?^ 

French Soldier. Monsieur le Fer. 

Boy. He says his name is Master Fer. 

Pistol. Master Fer! FU fer^ him, and firk^ him, and 
ferret^ him: discuss the same in French unto him. 11 

Boy. I do not know the French for fer, and ferret, and 
firk. 

Pistol. Bid him prepare; for I will cut his throat. 

French Soldier. Que dit-il, monsieur?^ 15 

Boy. II me commande de vous dire que vous faites vous 
pret; car ce soldat ici est dispose tout a cette heure de couper 
votre gorge." 

Pistol. Owy, cuppele gorge, permafoy," 
Peasant, unless thou give me crowns, brave crowns; 20 

Or mangled shalt thou be by this my sword. 

French Soldier. O, je vous supplie, pour I'amour de Dieu, 
me pardonner! Je suis gentilhomme de bonne maison: gar- 
dez ma vie, et je vous donnerai deux cents ecus." 

Pistol. What are his words? 25 

Boy. He prays you to save his life: he is a gentleman of a 
good house; and for his ransom he will give you two hun- 
dred crowns. 

Pistol. Tell him my fury shall abate, and I 
The crowns will take. 30 

French Soldier. Petit monsieur, que dit-il?'^ 

^ O pardon me! 2 Listen: what is your name? 

^ The Frenchman's name repeated. ^ Beat. ^ Worry. 

® What says he, Sir? '' Little sir, what does he say? 



SCENE v.] HENRY THE FIFTH 89 

Boy. Encore qu'il est centre son jurement de pardonner 
aucun prisonnier, neanmoins, pour les ecus que vous I'avez 
promis, il est content de vous donner la liberte, le franchise- 
ment." 

French Soldier. Sur mes genoux je vous donne mille re- 
merciemens; et je m'estime heureux que je suis tombe entre 
les mains d'un chevalier, je pense, le plus brave, valliant, et 
tres distingue seigneur d'Angleterre." 8 

Pistol. Expound unto me, boy. 

Boy. He gives you, upon his knees, a thousand thanks; 
and he esteems himself happy that he hath fallen into the 
hands of one, as he thinks, the most brave, valorous, and 
thrice-worthy signieur of England. 

Pistol. As I suck blood, I will some mercy show. Follow 
me! 15 

Boy. Suivez-vous le grand capitaine.^ [Exeunt Pistol and 
French Soldier.] I did never know so full a voice issue from 
so empty a heart: but the saying is true, 'The empty vessel 
makes the greatest sound.' Bardolph and Nym had ten 
times more valor than this roaring devil \ the old play, that 
every one may pare his nails with a wooden dagger; and 
they are both hanged; and so would this be, if he durst steal 
any thing adventurously. I must stay with the lackeys, with 
the luggage of our camp: the French might have a good 
prey of us, if he knew of it; for there is none to guard it but 
boys. [Exit, 

Scene V. Another Part of the Field. 

Enter Orleans, Bourbon, Dauphin, Constable, and 

Rambures. 

Constable. Odiable!" 27 

Orleans. O Seigneur! le jour est perdu, tout est perdu !^ 

^ Follow the great captain. - the devil! 

^ lord! the day is lost, everything is lost! 



90 SHAKESPEARE [act iv. 

Dauphin. Mort de ma vie!^ all is confounded, all! 
Reproach and everlasting shame 
Sit mocking in our plumes. O mechante fortune!^ 
Do not run away. [A short alarum. 

Constable. Why, all our ranks are broke. 5 

Dauphin. O perdurable^ shame! let's stab ourselves. 
Be these the wretches that we play'd at dice for? 

Orleans. Is this the king we sent to for his ransom.? 

Bourbon. Shame and eternal shame, nothing but shame! 
Let us die in honor: once more back again! 10 

Constable. Disorder, that hath spoiled us, friend'* us now! 
Let us on heaps ^ go offer up our lives. 

Orleans. We are enow yet living in the field 
To smother up the English in our throngs, 
If any order might be thought upon. 15 

Bourbon. The devil take order now! Til to the throng: 
Let life be short; else shame will be too long. [Exeunt. 

Scene VI . Another Part of the Field. 

Alarums. Enter King Henry and forces, Exeter, and 

others. 

King Henry. Well have we done, thrice valiant country- 
men: 
But all's not done; yet keep the French the field. 20 

Exeter. The Duke of York commends him to your majesty. 

King Henry. Lives he, good uncle.? thrice within this hour 
I saw him down, thrice up again, and fighting; 
From helmet to the spur all blood he was. 

Exeter: In which array, brave soldier, doth he lie, 25 

Larding^ the plain; and by his bloody side, 

^ Death of my life! 2 Q gyil fortune. ^ Lasting. 

^ Help. ^ In great numbers. 

^ Enriching with his blood. 



SCENE VI.] HENRY THE FIFTH 91 

Yoke-fellow ^ to his honor-owing wounds, 

The noble Earl of Suffolk also lies. 

Suff^olk first died: and York, all haggled over, 

Comes to him, where in gore he lay insteep'd," 

And takes him by the beard, kisses the gashes 5 

That bloodily did yawn upon his face, 

And cries aloud 'Tarry, dear cousin Suff^olk! 

My soul shall thine keep company to heaven; 

Tarry, sweet soul, /or mine, then fly abreast. 

As in this glorious and well-foughten ^ field 10 

We kept together in our chivalry!' 

Upon these words I came and cheer'd him up: 

He smil'd me in the face, raught^ me his hand, 

And, with a feeble gripe, says 'Dear my lord. 

Commend* my service to my sovereign.' 15 

So did he turn, and over Suff"olk's neck 

He threw his wounded arm, and kiss'd his lips; 

And so espous'd to death, with blood he seal'd 

A testament^ of noble-ending love. 

The pretty and sweet manner of it forc'd 20 

Those waters^ from me which I would have stopp'd; 

But I had not so much of man in me. 

And all my mother " came into mine eyes 

And gave me up to tears. 

King Henry. I blame you not; 25 

For, hearing this, I must perforce compound " 
With mistful eyes, or they will issue '^ too. — [Alarum. 

But, hark! what new alarum is this same.f* 
The French have reinforc'd their scatter'd men: 
Then every soldier kill his prisoners; 30 

Give the word through. [Exeunt. 

1 Close companion. ^ Soaked. ^ Well-fought. 

^ Reached. ^ A solemn declaration. 

^ Tears. ^ Flow with tears. 



92 SHAKESPEARE [act iv. 

Scene VII. Another Part of the Field, 

Enter Fluellen and Gower. 

Fluellen. Kill the poys and the luggage! 'tis expressly 
against the law of arms: 'tis as arrant a piece of knavery, 
mark you now, as can pe oiFert; in your conscience, now, 
is it not ? 

Gower. 'Tis certain there's not a boy left alive; and the 
cowardly rascals that ran from the battle ha' done this 
slaughter; besides, they have burned and carried away all 
that was in the king's tent; wherefore the king, most wor- 
thily, hath caused every soldier to cut his prisoner's throat. 
O, 'tis a gallant king! lo 

Fluellen, Ay, he was porn at Monmouth, Captain Gower. 
What call you the town's name where Alexander the Pig^ 
was porn ? 

Gower. Alexander the Great. 

Fluellen. Why, I pray you, is not pig great? the pig, or the 
great, or the mighty, or the huge, or the magnanimous, are 
all one reckonings, save the phrase is a little variations. 

Gower. I think Alexander the Great was born in Mace- 
don : his father was called Philip of Macedon, as I take it. 19 

Fluellen. I think it is in Macedon where Alexander is porn. 
I tell you, captain, if you look in the maps of the world, I war- 
rant you sail find, in the comparisons, petween Macedon 
and Monmouth, that the situations, look you, is poth alike. 
There is a river in Macedon; and there is also moreover a river 
at Monmouth: it is called Wye at Monmouth; but it is out of 
my prains what is the name of the other river; but 'tis all 
one, 't is alike as my fingers is to my fingers, and there is 
salmons in poth. If you mark Alexander's life well, Harry 
of Monmouth's life is come after it indifferent well; for there 

1 The Big. 



SCENE VII.] HENRY THE FIFTH 93 

is figures in all things. Alexander, Got knows, and you knoWj 
in his rages, and his furies, and his wraths, and his cholers, 
and his moods, and his displeasures, and his indignations, 
and also peing a little intoxicates in his prains, did, in his 
ales and his angers, look you, kill his pest friend, Cleitus." 5 

Gower. Our king is not like him in that: he never killed 
any of his friends. 

Fluellen. It is not well done, mark you now, to take the 
tales out of my mouth, ere it is made and finished. I speak 
but in the figures and comparisons of it: as Alexander killed 
his friend Cleitus, peing in his ales and his cups, so also 
Harry Monmouth, peing in his right wits and his goot 
judgments, turned away the fat knight with the great pelly- 
doublet: he was full of jests, and gipes, and knaveries, and 
mocks; I have forgot his name. 15 

Gower. Sir John FalstaflF. 

Fluellen. That is he: I'll tell you there is goot men porn 
at Monmouth. 

Gower, Here comes his majesty. 

Alarum. Enter King Henry and forces, Warwick, Glou- 
cester, Exeter, and others. 

King Henry. I was not angry since I came to France 20 
Until this instant. — Take a trumpet, herald; 
Ride thou unto the horsemen on yon hill: 
If they will fight with us, bid them come down, 
Or void ^ the field; they do offend our sight. 
If they'll do neither, we will come to them, 25 

And make them skirr ^ away as swift as stones 
Enforced from the old Assyrian" slings. 
Besides, we'll cut the throats of those we have, 
And not a man of them that we shall take 
Shall taste our mercy. Go and tell them so. 30 

1 Leave. 2 Run. 



94 SHAKESPEARE [act iv. 

Enter Montjoy. 

Exeter. Here comes the herald of the French, my liege. 

Gloucester. His eyes are humbler than they us'd to be. 

King Henry. How now! what means this, herald.? know'st 
thou not 
That I have fin'd these bones of mine for ransom .? 5 

Com'st thou again for ransom ? 

Montjoy. No, great king: 

I come to thee for charitable license,^ 
That we may wander o'er this bloody field 
To book^ our dead, and then to bury them; 10 

To sort our nobles from our common men. 
For many of our princes — ^woe the while! — 
Lie drown'd and soak'd in mercenary blood;" 
So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs 
In blood of princes; and their wounded steeds 15 

Fret fetlock deep in gore, and with wild rage 
Yerk^ out their armed heel^ at their dead masters. 
Killing them twice." O, give us leave, great king. 
To view the field in safety, and dispose 
Of their dead bodies! 20 

King Henry. I tell thee truly, herald, 

I know not if the day be ours or no; 
For yet a many of your horsemen peer^ 
And gallop o'er the field. 

Montjoy. The day is yours. 25 

King Henry. Praised be God, and not our strength, for it! 
What is this castle call'd that stands hard by.? 

Montjoy. They call it Agincourt. 

King Henry. Then call we this the field of Agincourt, 
Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus. 30 

Fluellen. Your grandfather of famous memory, an't please 
^Permission. 2 List. ^Jerk. ^Appear. 



SCENE VII.] HENRY THE FIFTH 95 

your majesty, and your great-uncle Edward the Black Prince 
of Wales, as I have read in the chronicles, fought a most 
prave pattle here in France. 

King Henry. They did, Fluellen. 

Fluellen. Your majesty says very true: if your majesties Is 
remembered of it, the Welshmen did goot service in a gar- 
den where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth 
caps; which, your majesty know, to this hour is an honor- 
able padge of the service; and I do pelieve your majesty 
takes no scorn to wear the leek upon Saint Tavy's day." 10 

King Henry. I wear it for a memorable honor; 
For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman. 

Fluellen. All the water in Wye cannot v/ash your majesty's 
Welsh ploot out of your pody, I can tell you that: Got pless 
it and preserve it, as long as it pleases his grace, and his maj- 
esty too! 16 

King Henry. Thanks, good my countryman. 

Fluellen. I am your majesty's countryman, I care not who 
know it; I will confess it to all the world: I need not to pe 
ashamed of your majesty, praised pe Got, so long as your 
majesty is an honest man. 

King Henry. God keep me so ! — Our heralds go with him. 
Bring me just notice of the numbers dead 
On both our parts. — Call yonder fellow hither. 

[Points to Williams. Exeunt Heralds with Montjoy. 

Exeter. Soldier, you must come to the king. 25 

King Henry. Soldier, why wearest thou that glove in thy 
cap? 

Williams. An't please your majesty, 'tis the gage of one 
that I should fight withal, if he be alive. 

King Henry. An Englishman .? 30 

Williams. An't please your majesty, a rascal that swag- 
gered with me last night; who, if alive and ever dare to 
challenge this glove, I have sworn to take him a box o' th' 



96 SHAKESPEARE [act iv. 

ear: or if I can see my glove in his cap, which he swore, as 
he was a soldier, he would wear if alive, I will strike it out 
soundly. 

King Henry, What think you, Captain Fluellen? is it fit 
this soldier keep his oath ? 5 

Fluellen. He is a craven and a villain else, an't please 
your majesty, in my conscience. 

King Henry. It may be his enemy is a gentleman of great 
sort, quite from the answer of his degree.** 

Fluellen. Though he pe as goot a gentleman as the tevil 
is, as Lucifer*^ and Pelzebub*^ himself, it is necessary, look 
your grace, that he keep his vow and his oath: if he pe per- 
jured, see you now, his reputation is as arrant a villain and 
a Jack-sauce,^ as ever his plack shoe trod upon Got's ground 
and his earth, in my conscience, la ! 15 

King Henry. Then keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou meet- 
est the fellow. 

Williams. So I will, my liege, as I live. 

King Henry. Who servest thou under? 

Williams. Under Captain Gower, my liege. 20 

Fluellen. Gower is a goot captain, and is goot knowledge 
and literatured ^ in the wars. 

King Henry, Call him hither to me, soldier. 

Williams. I will, my liege. [Exit. 

King Henry. Here, Fluellen; wear thou this favor for me 
and stick it in thy cap: when Alen^on and myself were down 
together, I plucked this glove from his helm: If any man 
challenge this, he is a friend to Alen9on, and an enemy to 
our person; if thou encounter any such, apprehend him, an 
thou dost me love. 30 

Fluellen. Your grace does me as great honors as can pe 
desired in the hearts of his subjects: I would fain see the 
man, that has but two legs, that shall find himself aggriefed^ 
^ Saucy fellow. 2 Well-read. ^ Aggrieved. 



SCENE VIII.] HENRY THE FIFTH 97 

at this glove, that is all; but I would fain see it once, an 
please Got of his grace that I might see. 

King Henry. Knowest thou Gower? 

Fluellen. He is my dear friend, an please you. 

King Henry. Pray thee, go seek him, and bring him to 
my tent. 6 

Fluellen. I will fetch him. [Exit. 

King Henry. My Lord of Warwick, and my brother Glou- 
cester, 
Follow Fluellen closely at the heels: lo 

The glove which I have given him for a favor 
May haply purchase him a box o' th' ear; 
It is the soldier's: I by bargain should 
Wear it myself. Follow, good cousin Warwick: 
If that the soldier strike him, as I judge 15 

By his blunt bearing he will keep his word, 
Some sudden mischief may arise of it; 
For I do know Fluellen valiant 
And, touch'd with choler,^ hot as gunpowder, 
And quickly will return an injury: 20 

Follow, and see there be no harm between them. — 
Go you with me, uncle of Exeter. [Exeunt^ 

Scene VIII. Before King Henry's Pavilion. 

Enter Gower and Williams. 
Williams. I warrant it is to knight you, captain. 

Enter Fluellen. 

Fluellen. Got's will and his pleasure, captain, I peseech 
you now, come apace ^ to the king: there is more goot toward 
you peradventure^ than is in your knowledge to dream of. 

Williams. Sir, know you this glove.? 27 

1 Anger. 2 At once. ^ Perhaps. 



98 SHAKESPEARE [act iv. 

Fluellen. Know the glove! I know the glove is a glove. 

Williams. I know this, and thus I challenge it. 

[Strikes him. 

Fluellen. 'Sblood! an arrant traitor as any is in the uni- 
versal world, or in France, or in England ! 

Gozaer. How now, sir! you villain! 5 

Williams. Do you think I'll be forsworn? 

Fluellen. Stand away. Captain Gower; I will give treason 
his payment into plows,^ I warrant you. 

Williams. I am no traitor. 

Fluellen. That's a lie in thy throat. — I charge you in his 
majesty's name, apprehend him: he's a friend of the Duke 
Alencon's. 12 

Enter Warwick and Gloucester. 

Warwick. How now, how now! what's the matter? 

Fluellen. My Lord of Warwick, here is — praised pe Got 
for it! — a most contagious treason come to light, look you, 
as you shall desire in a summer's day. Here is his majesty. 

Enter King Henry and Exeter. 

King Henry. How now! what's the matter? 

Fluellen. My liege, here is a villain and a traitor, that, look 
your grace, has struck the glove which your majesty is take" 
out of the helmet of Alen9on. 20 

Williams. My liege, this was my glove; here is the fellow 
of it; and he that I gave it to in change promised to wear it 
in his cap: I promised to strike him, if he did. I met this 
man with my glove in his cap, and I have been as good as 
my word. 25 

Fluellen. Your majesty hear now, saving your majesty's 
manhood, what an arrant, rascally, peggarly, lousy knave it 
is: I hope your majesty is pear me testimony and witness, 

1 Blows. 



SCENE VIII.] HENRY THE FIFTH 99 

and will avouchment/ that this is the glove of Alenq:on, that 
your majesty is give me ; in your conscience, now ? 

King Henry. Give me thy glove, soldier: look, here is the 
fellow of it. 
'Twas I, indeed, thou promised'st to strike; 5 

And thou hast given me most bitter terms. 

Fluellen. An please your majesty, let his neck answer for 
it, if there is any martial law in the world. 

King Henry. How canst thou make me satisfaction .f* 

Williams. All offenses, my lord, come from the heart: 
never came any from mine that might offend your majesty. 

King Henry. It was ourself thou didst abuse. 12 

Williams. Your majesty came not like yourself: you ap- 
peared to me but as a common man; witness the night, your 
garments, your lowliness; and what your highness suffered 
under that shape, I beseech you take it for your own fault 
and not mine: for had you been as I took you for, I made 
no offense; therefore, I beseech your highness, pardon me. 

King Henry. Here, uncle Exeter, fill this glove with crowns, 
And give it to this fellow. — Keep it, fellow; 20 

And wear it for an honor in thy cap 
Till I do challenge it. — Give him the crowns: 
And, captain, you must needs be friends with him. 

Fluellen. Py this day and this light, the fellow has mettle 
enough in his pelly. Hold, there is twelve pence for you, 
and I pray you to serve Got, and keep you out of prawls, 
and prabbles,^ and quarrels, and dissensions, and, I warrant 
you, it is the petter for you. 

Williams. I will none of your money. 29 

Fluellen. It is with a goot will; I can tell you, it will serve 
you to mend your shoes: come, wherefore should you pe so 
pashful? your shoes is not so goot: 'tis a goot silling,^ I war- 
rant you, or I will change it. 

^ Avow. 2 Brabbles, i. e., wrangles. ^ Shilling. 



lOO SHAKESPEARE [act iv. 

Enter an English Herald. 

King Henry. Now, herald, are the dead number'd ? 

Herald. Here is the number of the slaughter'd French. 

King Henry. What prisoners of good sort^ are taken, uncle? 

Exeter. Charles Duke of Orleans, nephew to the king; 
John Duke of Bourbon, and Lord Bouciqualt: 5 

Of others lords and barons, knights and squires, 
Full fifteen hundred, besides common men. 

King Henry. This note doth tell me often thousand French 
That in the field lie slain: of princes, in this number, 
And nobles bearing banners," there lie dead 10 

One hundred twenty-six: added to these. 
Of knights, esquires, and gallant gentlemen. 
Eight thousand and four hundred; of the which, 
Five hundred were but yesterday dubb'd ^ knights: 
So that, in these ten thousand they have lost, 15 

There are but sixteen hundred mercenaries; 
The rest are princes, barons, lords, knights, squires, 
And gentlemen of blood and quality. 
The names of those their nobles that lie dead: 
Charles Delabreth, high constable of France; 20 

Jacques of Chatillon, admiral of France; 
The master of the cross-bows. Lord Rambures; 
Great Master of France, the brave Sir Guichard Dauphin, 
John Duke of Alen^on, Anthony Duke of Brabant, 
The brother to the Duke of Burgundy, 25 

And Edward Duke of Bar: of lusty earls, 
Grandpre and Roussi, Fauconberg and Foix, 
Beaumont and Marie, Vaudemont and Lestrale. 
Here was a royal fellowship of death ! — 
Where is the number of our English dead ? 30 

[Herald shows him another paper. 
1 Made. 



I 



SCENE VIII.] HENRY THE FIFTH lOI 

Edward the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk, 

Sir Richard Ketly, Davy Gam, esquire: 

None else of name; and of all other men 

But five and twenty. — O God, thy arm was here; 

And not to us, but to thy arm alone, 5 

Ascribe we all! — When, without stratagem, 

But in plain shock and even play of battle. 

Was ever known so great and little loss 

On one part and on the other? — Take it, God, 

For it is none but thine! 10 

Exeter. 'Tis wonderful ! 

King Henry. Come, go we in procession to the village: 
And be it death proclaimed through our host 
To boast of this, or take that praise from God 
Which is his only. 15 

Fluellen. Is it not lawful, an please your majesty, to tell 
how many is killed.? 

King Henry. Yes, captain; but with this acknowledgment. 
That God fought for us. 

Fluellen, Yes, my conscience, he did us great goot. 20 

King Henry. Do we all holy rites; 
Let there be sung 'Non nobis ' ^ and ^Te Deum.'^ 
The dead with charity enclos'd in clay. 
We'll then to Calais;** and to England then; 
Where ne'er from France arriv'd more happy men. [Exeunt. 

ACT V 

PROLOGUE 

Enter Chorus. 

Chorus. Vouchsafe to those that have not read the story, 
That I may prompt them: and of such as have, 27 

1 "Not unto us." Psalm 115. 

2 " We praise thee, O God." A well-known song of praise. 



I02 SHAKESPEARE [act v. 

I humbly pray them to admit the excuse 

Of time, of numbers, and due course of things, 

Which cannot in their huge and proper hfe 

Be here presented. Now we bear the king 

Toward Calais: grant him there; there seen, 5 

Heave him away upon your winged thoughts 

Athwart ^ the sea. Behold, the English beach 

Pales in the flood with men, with wives, and boys, 

Whose shouts and claps out-voice the deep-mouth'd sea, 

Which like a mighty whiffler^ fore the king 10 

Seems to prepare his way: so let him land, 

And solemnly see him set on to London. 

So swift a pace hath thought that even now 

You may imagine him upon Blackheath;" 

Where that his lords desire him to have borne 15 

His bruised helmet and his bended sword 

Before him through the city: he forbids it. 

Being free from vainness and self-glorious pride; 

Giving full trophy, signal, and ostent^ 

Quite from himself to God. But now behold, 20 

In the quick forge and working-house of thought, 

How London doth pour out her citizens! 

The mayor and all his brethren in best sort. 

Like to the senators of the antique Rome, 

With the plebeians ^ swarming at their heels, 25 

Go forth and fetch their conquering Caesar in; 

As, by a lower but loving likelihood. 

Were now the general^ of our gracious empress,^ 

As in good time he may, from Ireland coming. 

Bringing rebellion broached^ on his sword, 30 

How many would the peaceful city quit. 

To welcome him ! much more, and much more cause, 

^ Across. 2 One who goes ahead to clear the way. 

^ Manifestation. ^ Common people. ^ Spitted. 



SCENE I.] HENRY THE FIFTH 103 

Did they this Harry. Now in London place him; — - 

As yet the lamentation of the French 

Invites the King of England's stay at home; 

The emperor " coming in behalf of France, 

To order peace between them; — and omit 5 

All the occurrences, whatever chanc'd. 

Till Harry's back-return again to France: 

There must we bring him; and myself have play'd 

The interim;^ by remembering you 'tis past. 

Then brook abridgment," and your eyes advance, 10 

After your thoughts, straight back again to France. [Exit. 

Scene I. France, The English Camp, 

Enter Fluellen and Gower. 

Gower. Nay, that's right; but why wear you your leek 
to-day.? Saint Davy's day is past. 

Fluellen. There is occasions and causes why and where- 
fore in all things: I will tell you, as my friend. Captain 
Gower: the rascally, scald, ^ peggarly, lousy, pragging knave. 
Pistol, which you and yourself and all the world know to pe 
no petter than a fellow, look you now, of no merits, he is 
come to me and prings me pread and salt yesterday, look 
you, and pid me eat my leek: it was in a place where I could 
not preed no contention " with him; but I will pe so pold as 
to wear it in my cap till I see him once again, and then I 
will tell him a little piece of my desires. 23 

Enter Pistol. 

Gower. Why, here he comes, swelling like a turkey-cock. 

Fluellen. 'Tis no matter for his swellings nor his turkey- 
cocks. — Got pless you, Aunchient Pistol! you scurvy, lousy 
knave. Got pless you! 

^ The meantime, ^ Scabby. 



I04 SHAKESPEARE [act v. 

Pistol. Ha! art thou bedlam?^ dost thou thirst, base 
Trojan," 
To have me fold up Parca's" fatal web?" 
Hence! I am qualmish ^ at the smell of leek. 

Fluellen. I peseech you heartily, scurvy, lousy knave, at my 
desires, and my requests, and my petitions, to eat, look you, 
this leek: because, look you, you do not love it, nor your 
affections and your appetites and your digestions does not 
agree with it, I would desire you to eat it. 

Pistol. Not for Cadwallader" and all his goats. lo 

Fluellen. There is one goat for you. [Strikes him.] Will 
you pe so goot, scald knave, as eat it.f* 

Pistol. Base Trojan, thou shalt die. 

Fluellen. You say very true, scald knave, when Got's will 
is: I will desire you to live in the mean time, and eat your 
victuals: come, there is sauce for it. [Strikes him.] You 
called me yesterday mountain-squire; but I will make you 
to-day a squire of low degree. I pray you, fall to: if you 
can mock a leek, you can eat a leek. 

Gozver. Enough, captain: you have astonished him. 20 

Fluellen. I say, I will make him eat some part of my leek, 
or I will peat his pate four days. — Pite, I pray you; it is 
goot for your green wound and your ploody coxcomb.^ 

Pistol. Must I bite? 

Fluellen. Yes, certainly, and out of doubt and out of ques- 
tion too, and ambiguities.^ 

Pistol. By this leek, I will most horribly revenge: I eat, 
and yet I swear — 

Fluellen. Eat, I pray you: will you have some more sauce 
to your leek? there is not enough leek to swear py. 30 

Pistol. Quiet thy cudgel; thou dost see I eat. 

Fluellen. Much goot do you, scald knave, heartily. Nay, 
pray you, throw none away; the skin is goot for your proken 

^ Mad, 2 jvjauseated, ^ Head. * Uncertainties. 



SCENE I.] HENRY THE FIFTH 105 

coxcomb. When you take occasions to see leeks hereafter, 
I pray you, mock at 'em; that is all. 

Pistol. Good. 

Fluellen. Ay, leeks is goot. Hold you, there is a groat ^ 
to heal your pate. 5 

Pistol. Me a groat! 

Fluellen. Yes, verily and in truth, you shall take it, or I 
have another leek in my pocket, which you shall eat. 

Pistol. I take thy groat in earnest - of revenge. 

Fluellen. If I owe you any thing, I will pay you in cudgels: 
you shall pe a woodmonger,^ and puy nothing of me but cud- 
gels. Got b' wi' you, and keep you, and heal your pate. [Exit. 

Pistol. All hell shall stir for this. 13 

Gower. Go, go; you are a counterfeit cowardly knave. 
Will you mock at an ancient tradition, begun upon an hon- 
orable respect, and worn as a memorable trophy of prede- 
ceased valor" and dare not avouch in your deeds any of your 
words.? I have seen you gleeking^ and galling at" this gen- 
tleman twice or thrice. You thought, because he could not 
speak EngHsh in the native garb, he could not therefore 
handle an English cudgel: you find it otherwise; and hence- 
forth let a Welsh correction teach you a good English con- 
dition. Fare ye well. [Exit. 

Pistol. Doth Fortune play the huswife^ with me now.? 
News have I, that my Neir is dead i' the spital 25 

Of malady of France; 
And there my rendezvous is quite cut off. 
Old I do wax; and from my weary limbs 
Honor is cudgell'd. 

To England will I steal, and there I'll steal: 30 

And patches will I get unto these cudgell'd scars. 
And swear I got them in the Gallia wars. [Exit. 

1 A silver coin worth fourpence. 2 Pledge. ^ ^ seller of wood. 

4 Joking. ^ Hussy, used here in contempt. 



Io6 SHAKESPEARE [act v. 

Scene II. Troyes. A Room in the Palace. 

Enter, at one door, King Henry, Exeter, Bedford, Glou- 
cester, Warwick, Westmoreland, and other Lords; at 
another, the French King, Queen Isabel, the Princess 
Katherine, Alice, and other Ladies, the Duke of Bur- 
gundy, and his train} 

King Henry. Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are met! 
Unto our brother France, and to our sister. 
Health and fair time of day; joy and good wishes 
To our most fair and princely cousin Katherine; 
And, as a branch and member of this royalty, 5 

By whom this great assembly is contriv'd,^ 
We do salute you, Duke of Burgundy; 
And, princes French, and peers, health to you all! 

French King. Right joyous are we to behold your face. 
Most worthy brother England; fairly met: 10 

So are you, princes English, every one. 

Queen Isabel. So happy be the issue, brother England, 
Of this good day and of this gracious meeting. 
As we are now glad to behold your eyes; 
Your eyes, which hitherto have borne in them 15 

Against the French, that met them in their bent,^ 
The fatal balls of murdering basilisks:" 
The venom of such looks, we fairly hope. 
Have lost their quality, and that this day 
Shall change all griefs and quarrels into love. 20 

King Henry. To cry amen to ^that, thus we appear. 

Queen Isabel. You English princes all, I do salute you. 

Burgundy. My duty to you both, on equal love. 
Great Kings of France and England! That I have labor'd 
With all my wits, my pains, and strong endeavors, 25 

To bring your most imperial majesties 

1 Followers. 2 Planned. ' Direction. 



fl 



SCENE II.] HENRY THE FIFTH lOJ 

Unto this bar^ and royal interview, 

Your mightiness on both parts best can witness. 

Since then my office hath so far prevail'd 

That, face to face and royal eye to eye, 

You have congreeted,^ let it not disgrace me, 5 

If I demand, before this royal view. 

What rub or what impediment there is, 

Why that the naked, poor, and mangled Peace, 

Dear nurse of arts, plenties, and joyful births, 

Should not in this best garden of the world, lo 

Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage? 

Alas, she hath from France too long been chas'd, 

And all her husbandry^ doth lie on heaps, 

Corrupting in its own fertility. 

Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart, 15 

Unpruned dies; her hedges even-pleach'd,'' 

Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair. 

Put forth disorder'd twigs; her fallow leas^ 

The darnel,^ hemlock,^ and rank fumitory^ 

Doth root upon, while that the coulter^ rusts 20 

That should deracinate ^^ such savagery; 

The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth 

The freckled cowslip, burnet,^^ and green clover, 

Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank. 

Conceives by idleness, and nothing teems 25 

But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies,^^ burs, 

Losing both beauty and utility. 

And as our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges. 

Defective in their natures, grow to wildness, 

1 Assembly. The actual bar was a light barrier between the French and 
the English. - Exchanged greetings. 

3 Agricultural products. ^ Even and thickly intergrown. 

5 Uncultivated meadows. _ ^ Weeds that grow in fields of grain. 

^ A poisonous plant with small white flowers. 

8 A weed with small flowers. ^ A plow-knife. 

10 Uproot. ^^ A sweet smelling plant. ^2 Hollow stalks. 



Io8 SHAKESPEARE [act v. 

Even so our houses and ourselves and children 

Have lost, or do not learn for want of time, 

The sciences that should become our country; 

But grow like savages, — as soldiers will 

That nothing do but meditate on blood, — 5 

To swearing and stern looks, difFusM attire, 

And every thing that seems unnatural. 

Which to reduce into our former favor 

You are assembled: and my speech entreats 

That I may know the let,^ why gentle Peace 10 

Should not expel these inconveniences 

And bless us with her former qualities. 

King Henry. If, Duke of Burgundy, you would the peace. 
Whose want gives growth to the imperfections 
Which you have cited, you must buy that peace 15 

With full accord to all our just demands; 
Whose tenors and particular effects 
You have enschedul'd ^ briefly in your hands. 

Burgundy. The king hath heard them; to the which as yet 
There is no answer made. 20 

King Henry. Well then the peace, 

Which you before so urg'd, lies in his answer. 

French King. I have but with a cursorary^ eye 
O'erglanc'd the articles: pleaseth your grace 
To appoint some of your council presently 25 

To sit with us once more, with better heed 
To re-survey them, we will suddenly ^ 
Pass our accept^ and peremptory^ answer. 

King Henry. Brother, we shall. — Go, uncle Exeter, 
And brother Clarence, and you, brother Gloucester, 30 

Warwick and Huntingdon, go with the king; 
And take with you free power to ratify, 

^ Obstacle. 2 Listed. ^ Hasty. 

^ Immediately. ^ Accepted. ® Final. 



SCENE II.] HENRY THE FIFTH 1 09 

Augment, or alter, as your wisdoms best 

Shall see advantageable for our dignity. 

Any thing in or out of our demands. 

And we'll consign thereto. — Will you, fair sister, 

Go with the princes, or stay here with us? 5 

Queen Isabel. Our gracious brother, I will go with them: 
Haply a woman's voice may do some good. 
When articles too nicely urg'd be stood on. 

King Henry. Yet leave our cousin Katherine here with us. 
She is our capital demand, compris'd 10 

Within the fore-rank of our articles. 

Queen Isabel. She hath good leave. 

[Exeunt all except Henry, Katherine, and Alice. 

King Henry. Fair Katherine, and most fair. 

Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms 
Such as will enter at a lady's ear 15 

And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart? 

Katherine. Your majesty sail mock at me; I cannot speak 
your England. 

King Henry. O fair Katherine, if you will love me soundly 
with your French heart, I will be glad to hear you confess it 
brokenly with your English tongue. Do you like me, Kate? 

Katherine. Pardonnez-moi,^ I cannot tell vat is 'like me.' 

King Henry. An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like 
an angel. 24 

Katherine. Que dit-il? que je suis semblable a les anges?^ 

Alice. Oui, vraiment, sauf votre grace, ainsi dit-il.^ 

King Henry. I said so, dear Katherine; and I must not 
blush to affirm it. 

Katherine. O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes sont 
pleines de tromperies.^ 30 

^ Pardon me. ^w/^Piat does he say? That I am Hke the angels? 

^ Yes, truly, save your grace, so says he. 

* O good Lord! the tongues of men are full of deceits. 



no SHAKESPEARE [act v. 

King Henry. What says she, fair one? that the tongues 
of men are full of deceits ? 

Alice. Oui,^ dat de tongues of de mans is be full of deceits: 
dat is de princess. 

King Henry. The princess is the better Englishwoman, 
r faith, Kate, my wooing is fit for thy understanding: I am 
glad thou canst speak no better English; for, if thou couldst, 
thou wouldst find me such a plain king that thou wouldst 
think I had sold my farm to buy my crown. I know no 
ways to mince it in love, but directly to say *I love you:' 
then if you urge me farther than to say Mo you in faith?' I 
wear out my suit. Give me your answer; i' faith, do: and 
so clap hands and a bargain: how say you, lady? 

Katherine. Sauf votre honneur,^ me understand veil. 14 

King Henry. Marry, if you would put me to verses or to 
dance for your sake, Kate, why you undid me: for the one, 
I have neither words nor measure; and for the other, I have 
no strength in measure, yet a reasonable measure in strength. 
If I could win a lady at leap-frog, or by vaulting into my 
saddle with my armor on my back, under the correction of 
bragging be it spoken, I should quickly leap into a wife. 
Or if I might buffet ^ for my love, or bound my horse for her 
favors, I could lay on like a butcher and sit like a jack-an- 
apes, never off. But, before God, Kate, I cannot look greenly 
nor gasp out my eloquence, nor I have no cunning in protes- 
tation; only downright oaths, which I never use till urged, 
nor never break for urging. If thou canst love a fellow of 
this temper, Kate, whose face is not worth sun-burning, that 
never looks in his glass for love of any thing he sees there, 
let thine eye be thy cook. I speak to thee plain soldier: if 
thou canst love me for this, take me; if not, to say to thee 
that I shall die, is true; but for thy love, by the Lord, no; 
yet I love thee too. And while thou livest, dear Kate, take 

1 Yes. 2 Save your honor. ^ Box, i. e., hold a fist fight. 



SCENE II.] HENRY THE FIFTH III 

a fellow of plain and uncoined ^ constancy; for he perforce 
must do the right, because he hath not the gift to woo in 
other places: for these fellows of infinite tongue, that can 
rhyme themselves into ladies' favors, they do always reason' 
themselves out again. What! a speaker is but a prater;^ a 
rhyme is but a ballad. A good leg will fall; a straight back 
will stoop; a black beard will turn white; a curled pate will 
grow bald; a fair face will wither; a full eye will wax hol- 
low: but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and the moon; or 
rather the sun and not the moon; for it shines bright and 
never changes, but keeps his course truly. If thou would 
have such a one, take me; and take me, take a soldier; take 
a soldier, take a king. And what sayest thou then to my 
love.f* speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee. 14 

Katherine. Is it possible dat I sould love de enemy of France.'* 
King Henry. No; it is not possible you should love the 
enemy of France, Kate: but, in loving me, you should love 
the friend of France; for I love France so well that I will 
not part with a village of it; I will have it all mine: and, 
Kate, when France is mine and I am yours, then yours is 
France and you are mine. 

Katherine. I cannot tell vat is dat. 22 

King Henry. No, Kate.^* I will tell thee in French; which 
I am sure will hang upon my tongue like a new-married wife 
about her husband's neck, hardly to be shook off. Quand 
j'ai le possession de France, et quand vous avez le posses- 
sion de moi^, — let me see, what then.? Saint Denis be my 
speed! — done votre est France et vous etes mienne.^ It is 
as easy for me, Kate, to conquer the kingdom as to speak 
so much more French: I shall never move thee in French, 
unless it be to laugh at me. 31 

1 Natural. 2 Babbler. 

^ When I have possession of France, and when you have possession of 
me. . . . ^ Then France is yours and you are mine. 



112 SHAKESPEARE [act v. 

Katherine. Sauf votre honneur, le Frangais que vous 
parlez, il est meilleur que I'Anglais lequel je parle.^ 

King Henry. No, faith, is't not, Kate: but thy speaking 
of my tongue, and I thine, most truly-falsely, must needs be 
granted to be much at one. But, Kate, dost thou under- 
stand thus much English, canst thou love me? 6 

Katherine. I cannot tell. 

King Henry. Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate.? I'll 
ask them. Come, I know thou lovest me: and at night, 
when you come into your closet, you'll question this gentle- 
woman about me; and I know, Kate, you will to her dis- 
praise those parts in me that you love with your heart: but, 
good Kate, mock me mercifully; the rather, gentle princess, 
because I love thee cruelly. How answer you, la plus belle 
Katherine du monde, mon tres-chere et divine deesse.^*^ 15 

Katherine. Your majestee ave fausse^ French enough to 
deceive de most sage demoiselle ^ dat is en France. 

King Henry. Now, fie upon my false French! By mine 
honor, in true English, I love thee, Kate: by which honor 
I dare not swear thou lovest me; yet my blood begins to 
flatter me that thou dost, notwithstanding the poor and un- 
tempering effect of my visage. Now, beshrew my father's 
ambition! he was thinking of civil wars when he got me: 
therefore was I created with a stubborn outside, with an as- 
pect of iron, that, when I come to woo ladies, I fright them. 
But, in faith, Kate, the elder I wax, the better I shall appear: 
my comfort is, that old age, that ill layer up of beauty, can 
do no more spoil upon my face: thou hast me, if thou hast 
me, at the worst; and thou shalt wear me if thou wear me, 
better and better: and therefore tell me, most fair Katherine, 
will you have me? Put off your maiden blushes; avouch 

^ Save your honor, the French that you speak is better than the English 
that I speak. 

2 Most beautiful Katherine in the world, my dear and divine goddess. 
^ Have false. ■* Wise young lady. 



SCENE II.] HENRY THE FIFTH II3 

the thoughts of your heart with the looks of an empress; 
take me by the hand, and say 'Harry of England, I am thine : ' 
which word thou shalt no sooner bless mine ear withal, but 
I will tell thee aloud 'England is thine, Ireland is thine, 
France is thine, and Henry Plantagenet" is thine;' who, 
though I speak it before his face, if he be not fellow with the 
best king, thou shalt find the best king of good fellows. 
Come, your answer in broken music; for thy voice is music 
and thy English broken; therefore, queen of all, Katherine, 
break thy mind to me in broken English; wilt thou have me? 

Katherine. Dat is as it sail please de roi mon pere.^ 11 

King Henry. Nay, it will please him well, Kate; it shall 
please him, Kate. 

Katherine. Den it sail also content me. 

King Henry. Upon that I kiss your hand, and I call you 
my queen. 16 

Katherine. Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez: ma foi, 
je ne veux point que vous abaissiez votre grandeur en bai- 
sant la main d'une votre indigne serviteur; excusez-moi, je 
vous supplie, mon tres-puissant seigneur.^ 

King Henry. Then I will kiss your lips, Kate. 

Katherine. Les dames et demoiselles pour etre baisees 
devant leur noces, il n'est pas la coutume de France.^ 

King Henry. Madam my interpreter, what says she.? 24 

Alice. Dat it is not be de fashion pour^ les^ ladies of 
France, — I cannot tell vat is baiser^ en^ Anglish. 

King Henry. To kiss. 

Alice. Your majesty entendre bettre que moi.^ 

^ The king my father. 

2 Leave me, my lord, leave me, leave me: my faith, I do not wish that 
you should lower your greatness by kissing the hand of your unworthy 
servant; excuse me, I beg you, my most powerfuUord. 

3 For women and young girls to be kissed before their marriage is not the 
French custom. 

4 For. 5 The. «Kiss. Hn. 
^ Understands better than I. 



114 SHAKESPEARE [act v. 

King Henry. It is not a fashion for the maids in France 
to kiss before they are married, would she say? 

Alice. Oui, vraiment.^ 

King Henry. O Kate, nice customs curtsy to great kings. 
Dear Kate, you and I cannot be confined within the weak 
list of a country's fashion: we are the makers of manners, 
Kate; and the liberty that follows our places stops the mouth 
of all find-faults; as I will do yours, for upholding the nice 
fashion of your country in denying me a kiss: therefore, 
patiently and yielding. [Kissing her.] You have witchcraft 
in your lips, Kate: there is more eloquence in a sugar touch 
of them than in the tongues of the French council; and they 
should sooner persuade Harry of England than a general 
petition of monarchs. Here comes your father. 14 

Re-enter the French King and his Queen, Burgundy, and 

other Lords. 

Burgundy. God save your majesty! my royal cousin, teach 
you our princess English ? 

King Henry. 1 would have her learn, my fair cousin, how 
perfectly I love her; and that is good English. 

Burgundy. Is she not apt? 19 

King Henry. Our tongue is rough, coz, and my condition 
is not smooth; so that, having neither the voice nor the 
heart of flattery about me, I cannot so conjure up the spirit 
of love in her, that he will appear in his true likeness. 

Burgundy. I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you 
will teach her to know my meaning: for maids, well sum- 
mered and warm kept, are like flies at Bartholomew-tide, 
blind, though they have their eyes. 27 

King Henry. It is so: and you may, some of you, thank 
love for my blindness, who cannot see many a fair French city 
for one fair French maid that stands in my way. 

^ Yes, truly. 



I 



SCENE II.] HENRY THE FIFTH 115 

French King. Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively,^ 
the cities turned into a maid; for they are all girdled with 
maiden walls that war hath never entered. 

King Henry. Shall Kate be my wife? 

French King. So please you. S 

King Henry. I am content; so the maiden cities you talk 
of may wait on her: so the maid that stood in the way for 
mv wish shall show me the way to my will. 

French King. We have consented to all terms of reason. 

King Henry. Is't so, my lords of England? lo 

Westmoreland. The king hath granted every article: 
His daughter first, and then in sequel all, 
According to their firm proposed natures. 

Exeter. Only he hath not yet subscribed this: 14 

Where your majesty demands that the King of France, 
having any occasion to write for matter of grant, shall name 
your highness in this form and with this addition, in French, 
Notre tres-cher fils Henri, roi d' Angleterre, heritier de 
France,^ and thus in Latin, Praeclarissimus filius noster 
Henricus, rex Angliae, et haeres Franciae. 20 

French King. Nor this I have not, brother, so denied, 
But your request shall make me let it pass. 

King Henry. I pray you then, in love and dear alliance. 
Let that one article rank with the rest; 
And thereupon give me your daughter. 25 

French King. Take her, fair son, and from her blood 
raise up 
Issue to me; that the contending kingdoms 
Of France and England, whose very shores look pale 
With envy of each other's happiness, 3° 

May cease their hatred, and this dear conjunction 
Plant neighborhood and Christian-like accord 

1 As if in a perspective, a glass once used for looking at objects. 

2 Our very dear son Henry, king of England, heir of France. 



Il6 SHAKESPEARE [act v. 

In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance 
His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France. 

All. Amen! 

King Henry. Now, welcome, Kate: — and bear me wit- 
ness all, 5 
That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen. [Flourish. 

Queen Isabel. God, the best maker of all marriages. 
Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one! 
As man and wife, being two, are one in love. 
So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal,^ lo 

That never may ill office, or fell jealousy. 
Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage. 
Thrust in between the paction^ of these kingdoms, 
To make divorce of their incorporate league; 
That English may as French, French Englishmen, 15 

Receive each other. God speak this Amen! 

All. Amen! 

King Henry. Prepare we for our marriage: — on which day 
My lord of Burgundy, we'll take your oath. 
And all the peers', for surety of our leagues. 20 

Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me; 
And may our oaths well kept and prosperous be! 

[Sennet.^ Exeunt. 

1 Marriage. 2 Agreement. 

3 A trumpet call for entrance to or exit from the stage. 



EPILOGUE.] HENRY THE FIFTH 1 17 

EPILOGUE 

Enter Chorus. 

Chorus. Thus far, with rough and all-unable pen," 

Our bending^ author hath pursued the story. 
In little room confining mighty men, 

Mangling by starts the full course of their glory. 
Small time, but in that small most greatly liv'd 5 

This star of England: Fortune made his sword; 
By which the world's best garden he achieved, 

And of it left his son imperial lord. 
Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown'd King 

Of France and England, did this king succeed; 10 

Whose state so many had the managing. 

That they lost France and made his England bleed: 
Which oft our stage hath shown; " and, for their sake. 
In your fair minds let this acceptance take. [Exit. 

^ Toiling. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 

HOW TO STUDY A PLAY 

A play is a literary unit; therefore the study of any part of a play 
should refer to the play as a whole. 

The first thing to do is to read the whole play, to learn where and 
when the action takes place and who and what are the characters 
introduced; to learn what event sets the action in motion; what 
series of events develops the action to a point of high interest; what 
part of the play is the turning point; what series of events leads to 
the conclusion; what hints are given as to what the conclusion will 
be; and what events finally end the play. 

In all readings, whether of the play as a whole, or of acts, scenes, 
or individual lines, one should read imaginatively. He should 
imagine the scene of action, the appearance of the persons present, 
even the color and style of their garments and the sound of their 
voices. He should imagine himself taking part in the action, speak- 
ing with the characters and living their lives. 

The entrance or exit of a character often changes not only the 
subject of conversation but the spirit of the action. When the words 
"enter," "exit," and "exeunt" occur one should stop his reading 
and ask himself what important thing has been said or done before 
the change in grouping took place. 

At the end of every scene one should recall the main points al- 
ready noted and consider which is of most importance. At the end 
of every act one should consider the striking points in the various 
scenes and notice which most influences the act. At the end of 
the play one should think of the development of the whole, noting 
how all the parts are linked together. 

As action is guided by character one must study the persons who 
appear in the play. One should ask concerning every character: 
What kind of person is this.^ What motives move him."* What de- 

119 



I20 SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 

sires has he? Is he a strong or a weak character? How does he feel 
toward the other characters? Is he forced into action or does he 
force others into action? How does his presence affect the play as 
a whole? 

One must do more than read imaginatively and thoughtfully. 
One must read lovingly, selecting scenes that he likes, passages that 
appeal to him, lines that stimulate fancy or thought. He should 
read sympathetically, with an eagerness to appreciate and a desire to 
find all that is good. 

PASSAGES FOR CLASS DISCUSSION 

1. How are the following passages connected with the plot of the 
play ? 

2. Explain the meaning of every passage, with reference to con- 
duct in life. 

"Therefore take heed . . . 

How you awake our sleeping soul of war." P. 17, 1. 13. 

"So may a thousand actions, once afoot. 
End in one purpose. . . ." P. 23, 1. 17-18. 

"Touching our person seek we no revenge." P. 38, 1. 8. 

"Peace itself should not so dull a kingdom, 
Though war nor no known quarrel were in question. 
But that defenses, musters, preparations. 
Should be maintained." P. 41, 1. 11-14. 

"Self-love ... is not so vile a sin 
As self-neglecting." P. 43, 1. 9-10. 

"In peace there's nothing so becomes a man 
As modest stillness and humility." P. 47, 1. 4-5. 

"... When lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler 
gamester is the soonest winner." P. 62, 1. 9-1 1. 

"... We are in great danger; 

The greater therefore should our courage be." P. 70, 1. 3-5. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 121 

"There is some soul of goodness in things evil 
Would men observingly distil it out." P. 70, 1. 7-8. 

"Now, if these men have defeated the law and outrun native 
punishment, though they can outstrip men, they have no wing to 
fly from God." P. 75, I 15-17. 

"Every subject's duty is the king's; 

But every subject's soul is his own." P. 75, 1. 24-25. 

"All offenses, my lord, come from the heart." P. 99, 1. 10. 

"... Peace, 

Dear nurse of arts, plenties, and joyful births." P. 107, 1. 8-9. 

What pictures present themselves when you read the following 
lines.'* 

"Think, when we talk of horses, that you see- them 
Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth." 

P. 12, 1. 19-20. 

"... Make her chronicle as rich with praise 

As is the ooze and bottom of the sea 

With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries." 

P. 21, 1. 32. 

"... Their emperor . . . surveys 

The singing masons building roofs of gold." 

P. 23, 1. 2-4. 

". . .A galled rock . . . 

Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean." 

P. 47, 1. 13-14. 

PASSAGES SUITABLE FOR MEMORIZING 

I. Act i, Scene 2, beginning with line 26, p. 22: "For so work the 
honey bees . . .", concluding with "the lazy yawning drone," 
f line 10, p. 23. 



122 SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 

2. Act ii, Scene 4, beginning with line 15, p. 42: ''He is bred out 
of that bloody strain . . .", concluding with "and let us fear The 
native mightiness and fate of him," line 28. 

3. Act iii, Prologue, beginning with line 23, p. 45: "Suppose that 
you have seen the well-appointed king . . .", concluding with 
"Holding due course to Harfleur," line 12, p. 46. 

4. Act iv, Scene 3, beginning with line i, p. 84: "This day is called 
the feast of Crispian . . .", concluding with "They fought with us 
upon Saint Crispin's day," line 28. 

5. Act V, Prologue, beginning with line 7, p. 102: "Behold, the 
English beach pales in the flood . . .", concluding with "Quite from 
himself to God," line 19. 

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT 

Prologue 

1. How does the prologue make us feel toward (a) King Henry? 
(b) the scenes of war? (c) the play itself? 

2. Why do we like such lines as 19 and 20, p. 12? 

3. What is the purpose of the prologue? 

Act I 

Scene i. i. Is the Archbishop of Canterbury a true patriot? 

2. What do we learn concerning the king's knowledge of (a) church 
affairs? (b) political conditions? (c) war? (d) statesmanship? 

3. How had the king passed his youth? 

4. How had he gained his information? 

5. Why did the king wish to hear the whole of Canterbury's argu- 
ment ? 

6. How does Scene l make us feel toward the king? 

7. What does Scene i tell us of political conditions in England? 
Scene 2. i. Why does the king charge Canterbury to tell him the 

exact truth? 

2. Which is more convincing, Canterbury's argument or his 
eloquent persuasion? 

3. Was the king convinced by argument, by persuasion, by the 



SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1 23 

personality of those who addressed him, or by a combination of these 
things? 

4. What does his warning against the Scots show us about the 
king? 

5. What is the meaning of Canterbury's speech, p. 22-23? 

6. Why did the Dauphin send tennis balls to King Henry? 

7. Why do we like King Henry's answer to the Dauphin's insult? 

8. In what spirit does Henry enter upon war? 

9. What is the point of highest interest in Scene I ? 

10. How does Scene i make us feel toward the part of the play 
that is to follow? 

Act II 

Prologue. I. How does the patriotic spirit of the English affect 
us toward the action of the play? 

2. How does the conspiracy against Henry's life make us feel 
toward him? 

Scene i. i. In what ways is this scene different from all that has 
gone before? 

2. What parts of the scene are most humorous? 

3. What is the source of the humor? 

Scene 2. i. Why.does the king's knowledge of the conspiracy make 
the scene more dramatic? 

2. Why do we have little sympathy for the three traitors? 

3. How do they condemn themselves? 

4. Why do we regard Henry as merciful even though he condemns 
the traitors? 

5. On what grounds does Henry condemn the traitors? 

6. Why does he seek no revenge for himself? 

7. Of what is he the representative? 

8. How does the scene lead our interest toward what is to follow? 
Scene 5. i. What sort of man was Falstaff ? 

2. What adds to the pathos of his death? 

3. What is the dramatic reason for making the scene partly comic 
and partly pathetic? 

4. Why do we like the scene? 



124 . SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 

Scene 4. I. How do the repeated references to Henry's early life 
make us feel toward his power as a man? 

2. What is the effect of the reference to Cressy? 

3. How does Henry's desire to avert war affect us (a) toward 
him? (b) toward the action of the play? 

4. What opinion do we form of Exeter? 

5. What lines or expressions are especially striking? 

Act III 

Prologue. I. By what means is the description made vivid? 

2. What is the dramatic advantage of making the war with France 
an event that concerns all England? 

Scene i. i. What is Henry's conception of a man's duty (a) in 
peace? (b) in war? 

2. How does he arouse his men? 

3. What characteristic of the king is emphasized in the scene? 

4. What characteristics have been emphasized in the previous 
scenes? 

Scene 2. i. What is the relation between this scene and the pre- 
ceding scene? 

2. How do the persons who appear in this scene differ from one 
another? 

3. What are some of the sources of humor in general? 

4. What are the sources of humor In this scene? 

5. How does the scene broaden our view of the war? 

Scene s. i. What are the king's reasons for demanding the sur- 
render of Harfleur? 

2. Is Henry's picture of war true to history? 

3. How does the scene prepare us for the climax of the play? 
Scene 4. i. How does the humor of this scene differ from the 

humor of scene 2? 

2. How does It impress us toward the French princess? 

3. What is the reason for introducing the princess at this point 
in the play? 

Scene 5. i. How do the leaders of the French differ in spirit from 
King Henry? 

2. For what reasons have the French despised the English? 



SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 1 25 

3. What is the condition of the English army? 

4. What is the relation of this scene to the part of the play that 
is to follow? 

Scene 6. i. What is the advantage of uniting the story of Henry 
and the story of the clownish soldiers? 

2. For what was Bardolph condemned? 

3. What good qualities of the king are here disclosed? 

4. How do the French explain their loss of Harfleur? 

5. Why do we admire Henry's reply to the French? 

6. How does this scene prepare us for the climax of the play? 
Scene 7. i. What is the condition of the French army? 

2. Why do the French feel so certain of victory? 

3. How does the Constable of France differ from the other French 
leaders? 

4. What contrast is there between the spirit of Henry before the 
battle and the spirit of the French leaders? 

Act IV 

Prologue. I. Which lines are most vivid in description? 

2. Select expressions that are especially suggestive. 

3. How does the prologue make us feel (a) toward the English? 
(b) toward the French? (c) toward King Henry? (d) toward the 
act that is to follow? 

Scene i. i. How does Henry act In the presence of danger? 

2. Why does he joke with his men? 

3. How does he treat Sir Thomas Erplngham? 

4. For what actions do we admire him? 

5. What is the dramatic effect of emphasizing Henry's nobility? 

6. What is the object of uniting the comic and the serious plots? 

7. How do we feel toward Fluellen and Gower? 

8. What is the purpose of introducing so many minor characters? 

9. What does this scene do toward preparing for the climax of the 
play? 

10. Where does the king show humility? 

11. In what way are lines 100-108 like lines 51-66, Scene I, 
Act HI, The Merchant of Venice? (b) Is the thought the same as 
the thought of Burns' poem, "A Man's a Man for A' That"? 



126 SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 

12. What is the dramatic effect of giving so intimate a view of 
the king? 

13. Why should Williams think the king responsible for war? 

14. What does King Henry say of a subject's responsibilities? 

15. Why does Henry say he will not be ransomed? 

16. What is the dramatic effect of the challenge? 

17. (a) What happiness comes with a simple life? (b) What 
sorrows come with greatness? 

18. Why does the king dislike ceremony? 

19. What is the dramatic effect of Henry's prayer? 

Scene 2. i. What is the dramatic effect of the overconfidence of 
the French? 

2. Do the French exaggerate the poor condition of the English? 
Scene 5. i. What spirit moves the English? 

2. Is Henry certain of victory? 

3. What is the dramatic effect of his eloquent speech? 

4. What characteristics does the king show in his reply to the 
Constable of France? 

Scene 4. i. What is the purpose of the scene? 

2. What is the source of the humor? 

Scene 5. i. To what previous scene is this scene a contrast? 

2. To what does the scene lead? 

Scene 6. i. Why is this scene made so personal? 

2. What is the effect of this scene? 

3. Why did Henry order his soldiers to kill the prisoners? 
Scene y. i. What further reason is given for killing the prisoners? 

2. What gives emphasis to the defeat of the French? 

3. Why is the scene turned into comedy? 

Scene 8. i. Why does Henry take part in the glove affair? 

2. Why were the French losses so great? 

3. To what does Henry ascribe his victory? 

Act V 

Prologue. I. Which lines give the most vivid pictures? 
2. How long a time intervenes between the close of Act iv and the 
opening of scene i, Act v? 

Scene i. i. On what is the humor of this scene founded? 



SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY I2J 

2. How do Fluellen and Pistol differ in character? 

Scene 2. i. What new characteristics of Henry are developed in 
this scene? 

2. What characteristics of Henry have been developed during 
the course of the play? 

3- What bad results have been caused by the war? 

4. What is the source of the humor in the dialogue between the 
king and Katherine? 

5. Why do we like Katherine? 

6. How does this scene differ from the previous humorous scenes? 

7. Why is the betrothal of Henry and Katherine a fit ending for 
the play? (b) What does it symbolize? 

Epilogue 
I. What is the purpose of the epilogue? 

TRANSLATION OF SCENE IV, ACT III 

K. Alice, you have been in England and you speak the language 
well. 

A. A little, Madame. 

K. I pray you, teach me; I must learn to speak. How do you say 
la main in English? 

A. La main? It is called de hand. 

K. De hand. And les doigts? 

A. Les doigts? my faith, I forget les doigts; but I will think of it. 
Les doigts? I think that they are called de fingres; yes, de fingres. 

K. La main, de hand; les doigts, de fingres. I think that I am a 
fine pupil; I have learned two English words quickly. How do you 
say les ongles? 

A. Les ongles? We call them de nails. 

K. De nails. Listen; tell me if I speak right: de hand, de fingres, 
and de nails. 

A. That is well said, Madame; it is very fine English. 

K. Tell me the English for le bras. 

A. De arm, Madame. 

K. And le coude? 



128 SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 

A. De elbow. 

K. De elbow. I am going to repeat all the words that you have 
taught me up to now. 

A. It Is too difficult, Madame, I think. 

K. Excuse me, Alice; listen: de hand, de fingres, de nails, de arm, 
de bilbow. 

A. De elbow, Madame. 

K. O lord, I forgot. De elbow. How do you say le col? 

A. De neck, Madame. 

K. De nick. And le menton? 

A. De chin. 

K. De sin. Le col, de nick; de menton, de sin. 

A. Yes. Save your honor, truly, you pronounce the words as 
well as the natives of England. 

K. I don't doubt that I can learn, by the grace of God, and in a 
little time. 

A. Have you not already forgotten what I have taught you.^ 

K. No, I will recite to you at once: de hand, de fingres, de 
mails, — 

A. De nails, Madame. 

K. De nails, de arm, de ilbow. 

A. Save your honor, de elbow. 

K. So I say; de elbow, de nick, and de sin. What do you call 
le pied and la robe? 

A. De foot, Madame, and de coun. 

K. De foot and de coun. O Lord! What bad sounding words, 
corruptible, gross and shameful, and not for ladies of honor to use; I 
should not like to pronounce those words before the lords of France 
for all the world. Foh ! the foot and the coun ! Nevertheless, I shall 
recite my whole lesson another time: de hand, de fingres, de nails, 
de arm, de elbow, de nick, de sin, de foot, de coun. 

A. Excellent, Madame. 

K. It is enough for once: let us go to dinner. 



NOTES 

(The figures in heavy type refer to the page) 

11. Muse. One of the nine Greek goddesses of art, science, and 
poetry. The chorus thinks the subject is so great that it is beyond the 
power of an ordinary mortal, the port of Mars. The heroic bearing 
of Mars, the Roman god of war. 

12. Agincourt. A battle fought In France, October 25, 141 5. 
Henry V, with about I5,C)00 English, defeated the Constable of France 
with about 6o,ocx) French. The perilous narrow ocean. The 
English Channel. 

14. The courses of his youth. In Act i, Henry IV, Henry is shown 
as a somewhat dissipated, mischief-loving young man. hydra- 
headed. The Hydra, in Greek mythology, was a nine-headed dragon 
killed by Hercules. "Hydra-headed willfulness" means "varied wil- 
fulness." Gordian knot. According to Greek legend an oracle de- 
clared that the man who could untie the knot of the yoke of a sacred 
car should become ruler of Asia. Alexander the Great unloosed the 
knot by cutting it with his sword, chartered libertine. One who 
has special permission to be free from restraint, the mute wonder 
lurketh in men's ears. When he speaks, men remain in delighted 
silence. . . . the art and practic part of life must be the mistress 
to this theoric. Practical living, rather than study, taught Henry 
the theory or principles of life. 

15. mitigation of this bill. Making this bill less severe. 

17. law Salique. By the Salic law women could not inherit royal 
power. See scene 2, lines 50-51. Pharamond. The so-called first 
King of France. 

20. played a tragedy. The tragedy referred to Is the battle of 
Crecy, fought August 26, 1346. About 40,ocxd English defeated 
80,000 French. The Black Prince won the battle while his father, 
Edward III, watched him from a high vantage point. 

129 



I30 NOTES 

21. unfurnished Kingdom. A kingdom not guarded by soldiers. 
Galling the gleaned land with hot assays. This means annoying 
with fierce attacks the land from which all able-bodied defenders 
had been taken. 

24. a waxen epitaph. A perishable inscription on a monument. 
Henry wishes to be remembered for his great deeds or else to lie In 
an unmarked grave over which no one shall put a monument with 
even a "waxen epitaph." Dauphin. The title of the French crown 
prince, savor too much of your youth. You show too much the 
characteristics of your youth. 

25. into the hazard. In the old game of tennis the hazard was that 
part of the court into which a winning stroke could be played, comes 
o'er us. Insults us. 

27. dalliance. Idle trifling, silken dalliance. The gay clothing 
worn in times of Idle court life. English Mercuries. In Roman 
mythology Mercury was the messenger of the gods. As such he had 
a winged hat and winged sandals, hollow bosoms. Hearts not filled 
with loyalty. 

28. we'll digest the abuse of distance. We will explain the 
change of scene from England to France. Such a change of scene 
is an " abuse " of the so-called law of unity of place. Ancient. A title 
given to an ensign or flag bearer. 

30. Barbason. An evil spirit. Couple a gorge ! Pistol's Incorrect 
way of saying "Couper la gorge;" I. e., cut the throat. Cressid's 
kind. Cresslda, according to medieval story, was the faithless 
daughter of the Trojan priest Calchas. my master. Sir John Fal- 
staff, a comic character who appears in Part I and Part II of Shake- 
speare's Henry IV, and also in The Merry Wives of Windsor. He is 
pictured as exceedingly fat, a great drinker, a boaster, a liar, and, at 
the same time, a good-natured, interesting character. 

32. quotidian tertian. An ignorant mixture of medical terms. 
One with a "quotidian" fever has daily attacks; one with a "tertian" 
fever has attacks every other day. passes some humors and ca- 
reers. He has peculiarities and makes sudden changes. 

33. steeped their galls in honey. Changed their former bitterness 
to graclousness. 

36. vasty Tartar. Tartarus, as mentioned by Homer, a vast un- 



NOTES 131 

lighted abyss far below Hades. It was the prison of the giant Titans 
who had rebelled against Zeus. 

37. full fraught man. One whose mind is freighted with learning. 

38. Staines. A town on the river Thames about 75 miles above 
London. 

39. Arthur's bosom. Arthur is the legendary hero of the Welsh, 
Breton, and Old French Arthurian romances. The hostess had 
heard the expression "Abraham's bosom" (Luke xvi, 22) and con- 
fused the words "Arthur" and "Abraham." christom child. In 
Shakespeare's time a child that died within a month of its baptism 
was called a "chrisom" child. The hostess mispronounces the word. 
The chrisom was a white garment worn by newly christened in- 
fants. 

40. Caveto. Latin for "thou shalt beware." Here it personifies 
watchfulness. 

41. morris-dance. A dance In which the participants dressed to 
represent well-known fictitious characters. The dance was given on 
various festal occasions, one of which was Whitsunday, the seventh 
Sunday after Easter. Roman Brutus. Not the Brutus of Shake- 
speare's Julius Caesar but Lucius Junius Brutus, a Roman consul who 
lived nearly 600 years earlier. At one time he pretended to be stupid 
In order to protect himself from a cruel uncle. 

44. Jove. The supreme god of the Romans, characterized by power 
and dignity. He used the thunderbolt as a weapon, womby vault- 
ages. Arched chambers. 

45. Paris Louvre. The chief palace of the French kings. 

46. the young Phoebus. The newly risen sun. Phoebus Apollo 
was the Greek sun-god. A city on the inconstant billows. The 
English set sail with 1600 vessels, sternage. The stern. Grapple 
your minds to sternage of this navy. Follow the fleet In imagina- 
tion as small boats would follow if tied to the sterns. 

47. Let it pry through the portgage of the head like the brass 
cannon. Let the eye look as terrible as a cannon protruding through 
the porthole of a warship, so many Alexanders. Alexander the 
Great, who wept because he knew of no more lands to conquer, copy 
now to men of grosser blood. Act so that you will be examples to 
men of less noble birth. 



132 . NOTES 

48. The mettle of your pasture. The spirit gained by life in your 
own land. 

53. flesh'd soldier. A soldier hardened by seeing blood shed. 
Jewry. Judea. Herod^s bloody-hunting slaughtermen. Herod 
the Great, King of Judea, who ordered the slaughter of the inno- 
cents. 

56. Sprays of us. Branches of our race; i. e., English who are of 
Norman French descent, scions. Twigs for grafting; i. e., French 
people who united with the English as did the descendants of the 
Normans who followed William the Conqueror, overlook their 
grafters. Grafters insert shoots from one tree into the branches of 
another, making the union permanent. Here the word refers to the 
French. Shall the English grow great and despise the French.'' 
nook-shotten. Broken into by bays. 

57. lavolta. A waltz-like dance in which the woman leapt into the 
air. coranto. A lively dance with swift sliding movements. 

58. For your great seats. For your great rank, quit you. Clear 
yourselves. 

59. Agamemnon. One of the Greek leaders in the Trojan War. 
Mark Antony. A celebrated Roman general. He appears in Shake- 
speare's Antony and Cleopatra. 

64. Pegasus. A wonderful winged horse mentioned in Greek 
mythology. See note on Perseus. Hermes. The Greek name for 
the messenger of the gods. See note on Mercury, page 130. 
Perseus. According to Greek mythology Perseus was a hero who 
killed the Gorgon Medusa. From the Gorgon's blood there sprang 
the winged horse Pegasus, by whose aid Perseus was enabled to save 
Andromeda from a sea monster. 

66. go to hazard. Try a chance at dice. 

68. entertain conjecture of a time. Imagine a time, poring 
dark. Darkness that looks steadily upon everything; i. e., darkness 
that covers everything, closing rivets up. Joining the armor plates. 
English play at dice. The French are playing dice for the English 
prisoners whom they expect to have no difficulty in taking. 

70. Upon example. As compared with the pains of others. 

72. I am a Welshman. Henry was born in Monmouth, Wales. 
leek. A plant like an onion but stronger in flavor. It was chosen as 



NOTES 133 

the emblem of Wales because the Welsh wore leeks in their caps when, 
in 540 A. D., they won a great battle, part of which was fought in a 
field where leeks grew. Pompey the Great. A Roman general who 
served in many wars. 

75. irreconciled iniquities. Sins that have not been pardoned. 

77. We must bear. The king uses the plural but refers to him- 
self alone, a custom begun by King John of England. 

78. intertissued robe of gold and pearl. A robe interwoven with 
gold and ornamented with pearls, sleeps in Elysium. In Greek 
mythology Elysium was a blissful place in which lived the souls of the 
good. Hyperion. The sun-god. 

79. My father made in compassing the crown. Henry's father 
deposed Richard H and took the throne. 

80. Make incision in their hides. Spur them. 

81. carrions. Carrion usually refers to a dead and decaying 
animal body. Here the word is used in contempt. 

83. upon my cost. At my expense. 

84. Crispian. Crispin, a Christian martyr, the patron saint of 
shoemakers because he made shoes for the poor. His day is Octo- 
ber 25, the day of the battle of Agincourt. He is associated with his 
brother, Crispianus, hence "Crispin-Crispian," line 18. on the vigil. 
The day and the night before the feast day. 

86. Shall witness live in brass. Memorial inscriptions will bear 
witness to their heroism. Killing in relapse of mortality. Killing 
by disease that might arise from the dead left unburied after the 
war. 

87. Callino, castore me! Pistol repeats the Frenchman's last 
words and then mispronounces the words of an old song, "Calen, O 
custure me." on point of fox. At the point of a sword, called a 
"fox" because a picture of a fox or a wolf was engraved on the blade. 

88. II me commande . . . couper votre gorge. He commands 
me to tell you to get ready; for this soldier is disposed to cut your 
throat immediately. Owy, cuppele gorge, permafoi. Pistol tries to 
say "Yes, cut your throat, by my faith." O, je vous supplie . . . 
deux cents ecus. O I beg you, for the love of God, forgive mc. I am 
a gentlero-an of great rank: save my life and I will give you two hun- 
dred crowns. 



134 '■ NOTES 

89. Encore qu41 est . . . . le franchisement. Although it is 
against his oath to pardon any prisoner, nevertheless for the crowns 
that you have promised he is pleased to give you liberty, freedom. 
Sur mes genoux . . . seigneur d'Angleterre. On my knees I give 
you a thousand thanks; and I esteem myself happy that I have fallen 
into the hands of a knight, I think, the bravest, most valiant, and 
most distinguished lord of England, 

91. And all my mother. All my sympathy. 

93. kill his pest friend, Cleitus. Alexander the Great, while 
under the influence of liquor, killed his favorite general, Cleitus, who 
once saved his life. Assyrian. Assyria was an ancient Asiatic power, 
one of the earliest civilizations in the world. 

94. mercenary blood. The blood of hired soldiers. Elilling 
them twice. The horses kick and hit the dead soldiers. 

95. Saint Tavy's day. March first, the day of Saint David, the 
patron saint of Wales. 

96. quite from the answer of his degree. So high in rank that it 
would be a disgrace for him to answer the challenge of one of low birth. 
Lucifer. A name applied to Satan. Pelzebub. Beelzebub, originally 
the name of a Philistine god. The name has been applied to an evil 
spirit of lower rank than Lucifer. 

98. is take. Took. 

100. good sort. High rank, nobles bearing banners. Nobles 
of especially high rank. 

101. Calais. The French seaport nearest England. 

102. Blackheath. A famous open common five miles from 
London, the general. The Earl of Essex, who had been sent in 1599 
to quell an uprising In Tyrone, Ireland, gracious empress. Queen 
Elizabeth. 

103. The emperor. Sigismund, Emperor of Germany, who came 
to England in 1416 to bring about peace between France and Eng- 
land, brook abridgment. Tolerate the skipping of a great space 
of time, I. e., five years elapse between Act Iv and Act v. preed no 
contention. Have any quarrel. 

104. Trojan. A native of Troy. Here the word is used to show 
contempt. Parca's fatal web. The Parcse were the three fates. They 
Were said to spin, measure, and cut the thread of life. Cadwallader. 



I 



NOTES 135 

A Welsh king who defended Wales against the Saxons In the seventh 

century. 

105. predeceased valor. The valor of men who died long before. 
galling at. Giving annoyance to. Nell. The hostess, Mrs. Quickly. 

106. The fatal balls of murdering basilisks. The eyeballs of 
dragons that killed by a look, or cannon-balls fired from cannon 
named after the dragons. 

113. Plantagenet. Henry traced his ancestry to the Plantagenets, 
whose emblem was the broom flower {planta Genistcs). 

117. all unable pen. The author feels entirely unable to tell the 
story to his own satisfaction, oft our stage hath shown. Shake- 
speare's Henry VI, in three parts, tells the story of how the weak son 
of Henry V lost the English possessions in France. 



ECLECTIC ENGLISH CLASSICS 

THE 20 CENT SERIES 

Addison's Sir Roger de Coverley Papers (Underwood) . ^o 20 

Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum (Tanner) 20 

Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (Jones and Arnold) ... 20 
Burke's Conciliation with the American Colonies 

(Clark) • 20 

Burns's Poems — Selections (Venable) 20 

Byron's Childe Harold (Canto IV), Prisoner of Chil- 

lon, Mazeppa, and other Selections (Venable) .... 20 

Carlyle's Essay on Burns (Miller) 20 

Chaucer's Prologue and Knighte's Tale (Van Dyke) . . 20 

Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Garrigues) . 20 

Cooper's Pilot (Watrous). Double number 40 

Defoe's History of the Plague in London (Syle) 20 

Robinson Crusoe (Stephens) 20 

De Quincey's Revolt of the Tartars 20 

Dickens's Tale of Two Cities (Pearce). Double 

number 40 

Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (Bates) 20 

Emerson's American Scholar, Self-Reliance, Com- 
pensation (Smith) 20 

Franklin's Autobiography (Reid) 20 

George Eliot's Silas Marner (McKitrick) 20 

Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield (Hansen) 20 

Deserted Village (See Gray's Elegy in a Country 
Churchyard) 
Gray's Elegy in a Country Churchyard, and Gold- 
smith's Deserted Village (Van Dyke) 20 

Irving's Sketch Book — Selections (St. John) 20 

Tales of a Traveler (Rutland). Double number. . . 40 

Lincoln, Addresses and Letters (Moores) 20 

Address at Cooper Union (See Macaulay's Speeches 
on Copyright) 

Macaulay's Essay on Addison (Matthews) 20 

Essay on Milton (Mead) 20 

Essays on Lord Clive and Warren Hastings 

(Holmes) Double number 40 

(S.95) 



ECLECTIC ENGLISH CLASSICS 

Lays of Ancient Rome and other Poems (Atkinson) . ^o 20 

Life of Johnson (Lucas) 20 

Speeches on Copyright and Lincoln's Address at 

Cooper Union (Pittenger) 20 

Milton's L' Allegro, II Penseroso, Comus, Lycidas 

(Buck) 20 

Paradise Lost. Books I and II (Stephens) 20 

Old Testament Narratives (Baldwin) 20 

Foe's Selected Poems and Tales (Stott) 20 

Pope's Homer's IHad. Books I, VI, XXII, and XXIV 20 

Rape of the Lock, and Essay on Man (Van Dyke) . . 20 

Scott's Abbot. Double number 40 

Ivanhoe (Schreiber). Double number 40 

Lady of the Lake (Bacon) 20 

Marmion (Coblentz) 20 

Quentin Durward (Norris). Double number 40 

Woodstock. Double number - 40 

Shakespeare's As You Like It (North) 20 

Hamlet (Shower) 20 

Henry V (Law) 20 

Julius Caesar (Baker) 20 

Macbeth (Livengood) 20 

Merchant of Venice (Blakely) 20 

Midsummer Night's Dream (Haney) 20 

Twelfth Night (Weld) 20 

Southey's Life of Nelson. Double number 40 

Stevenson's Inland Voyage, and Travels with a Don- 
key (Armstrong) 20 

Treasure Island (Fairley) 20 

Swift's Gulliver's Travels (Gaston) 20 

Tennyson's Idylls of the King — Selections (Willard) . . 20 

Princess (Shryock) 20 

Thackeray's Henry Esmond (Bissell). Double num- 
ber 40 

Washington's Farewell Address, and Webster's First 

Bunker Hill Oration (Lewis) 20 

Webster's Bunker Hill Orations (See also Washing- 
ton's Farewell Address) 20 

Wordsworth's Poems — Selections (Venable) 20 

(S.95a) 



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and toward the end of the book there is a very comprehensive 
and compact summary of grammatical principles. More than 
usual attention is devoted to the treatment of argument. 



AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 

CS. 88) 



THE MASTERY OF BOOKS 

By HARRY LYMAN KOOPMAN, A.M., Librarian 
of Brown University. Price, 90 cents 



IN this book Mr. Koopman, whose "experience and 
reputation as a librarian give him unusual qualifications 
as an adviser, presents to the student at the outset the 
advantages of reading, and the great field of literature 
open to the reader's choice. He takes counsel with the 
student as to his purpose, capacities, and opportunities in 
reading, and aims to assist him in following such methods 
and in turning to such classes of books as will fiirther the 
attainment of his object. 

^ Pains are taken to provide the young student fi-om the 
beginning with a knowledge, often lacking in older readers, 
of the simplest literary tools — reference books and cata- 
logues. An entire chapter is given to the discussion of 
the nature and value of that form of printed matter which 
forms the chief reading of the modern world — periodical 
literature. Methods of note- taking and of mnemonics 
are fully described ; and a highly suggestive and valuable 
chapter is devoted to language study. 
^ One of the most valuable chapters in the volume to 
most readers is that concerning courses of reading. In 
accordance with the author's new plan for the guidance 
of readers, a classified hst of about fifteen hundred books 
is given, comprising the most valuable works in reference 
books, periodicals, philosophy, religion, mythology and 
folk-lore, biography, history, travels, sociology, natural 
sciences, art, poetry, fiction, Greek, Latin, and modern 
literatures. The latest and best editions are specified, and 
the relative value of the several works mentioned is indi- 
cated in notes. 



AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 

CS. 106) 



MASTERPIECES OF THE 
ENGLISH DRAMA 

Edited under the supervision of FELIX E. SCHELLING, 
Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of History and English 
Literature, University of Pennsylvania. 



Marlowe (Phelps) Middleton (Sampson) 

Chapman (Ellis) Massinger (Sherman) 

Beaumont and Fletcher (Schelling) Webster and Tourneur (Thorndike) 
Jonson (Rhys) Congreve (Archer) 

Goldsmith and Sheridan (Demmon) 

Each, 70 cents 



THIS series presents the principal dramatists, covering 
English dramatic history from Marlowe's Tambur- 
laine in 1 587 to Sheridan's School for Scandal in 
1777. Each volume contains four or five plays, selected 
with reference to their actual worth and general interest, 
and also because they represent the best efforts of their 
authors in the different varieties of dramas chosen. 
^ The texts follow the authoritative old editions, but 
with such occasional departures as the results of recent 
critical scholarship demand. Spelling and punctuation 
have been modernized, and obsolete and occasional words 
referred to the glossaries. This makes the volumes suitable 
for the average reader as well as for the advanced scholar. 
^ Each volume is furnished with an introduction by a 
British or an American scholar of rank dealing with the 
dramatist and his work. Each volume contains a brief 
biographical note, and each play is preceded by an histor- 
ical note, its source, date of composition, and other 
kindred matters. Adequate notes are furnished at the end. 



AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 

(S. 100) 



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